Sleepless
by Artemis1000
Summary: The night of Halloween is also the night of Samhain Lore, when the veil between the world is the thinnest and ancient magic reigns. In this night, Hermione has a mysterious encounter on the Astronomy Tower with Tom Riddle. A figment of her imagination or
1. Encounter by moonlight

Author: Artemis

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Timeline: 6th year story

Rating: PG-13

Chapter: 1 – Encounter by moonlight

Pairings: Very mild Tom Riddle/Hermione Granger

Summary: The night of Halloween is also the night of Samhain Lore, when the veil between the world is the thinnest and ancient magic reigns. In this night, Hermione has a mysterious encounter on the Astronomy Tower. A figment of her imagination or true magic? TR/HG

Author's note: This was written in a sleepless night, when I was plagued from insomnia, so don't expect it to make all that much sense laughs I know that the meeting is very unrealistic, it's just a little piece of fun writing (and reading, too, I hope). It was originally planned as a one-shot, then I got an idea for a second chapter, maybe I'll add a third chapter, it depends on the ideas I have and if people like this story.

**Sleepless**

Chapter 1: Encounter by moonlight

Hermione counted the steps of the Astronomy Tower as she walked up the staircase. It was an awfully long journey, especially when you were tired and just clad in your night-shirt and a hastily donned cloak, the counting didn't made the journey seem any shorter, but at least it kept her so much focused that she didn't had to fear that she would fall asleep on the staircase and tumble down it.

Hermione drew her thick winter cloak tighter around her slender body.

Who would have guessed that it would be already so chilly for Halloween?

She felt confident as she stepped into the round room at the top of the Astronomy Tower. No one beside her would be here and so she couldn't get into trouble. She'd still heard partying noises from the Great Hall as she sneaked past it, Filch and Snape had already been completely smashed by the time that she had left the Halloween Feast and no other teacher would miss out on a perfectly good party to terrorise the students.

Hermione halted in mid-step and gasped.

A boy who looked like a sixth- or seventh-year was leisurely draped on the banister of the Astronomy Tower. His back rested against the solid wall on one side of the "window", while his slightly bent legs rested on the banister itself. His arms were crossed behind his head and he looked completely enraptured by the sight of the stars and the moon.

Hermione felt panic flood her.

The Astronomy Tower was like the rest of Hogwarts built from solid stone. But just a strong gust of wind could already topple the boy who reclined so precariously on the fine line between life and death.

Her first thought was that he was about to commit suicide. But there was nothing depressive or sad about him, he looked proud, thoughtful and graceful, not like someone who was about to put an end to the misery of his life.

The boy's head swivelled around to her. His face was schooled into an expression of complete lack of expression. "I don't plan to die tonight", he said softly in a deep, pleasant voice. He sounded faintly bemused.

Hermione realised that her horror and fear must have clearly showed, but at the moment, she didn't care, she was just relieved that he had confirmed her hopes. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad", she whispered.

It felt wrong to speak louder than a whisper, this whole encounter was so surreal and dreamlike that Hermione feared it might shatter just like a dream if she made a wrong sound.

He turned back to the stars, he was apparently content with a companionable silence.

Hermione was grateful that he didn't insisted to involve her into a conversation. When one came alone to the Astronomy Tower in the middle of a freezing-cold night, one didn't do so for the conversation.

She leant against the banister across from her companion and with a whispered, "Nox", the tip of her wand lost it's light.

They watched the stars in silence for a while, neither knew how much time had passed in the world outside of their little sanctuary.

It was Hermione who broke the silence when it became too thick to bear for her, despite her own earlier thoughts. "You do realise that you're just a few inches away from a deadly fall, don't you?", she asked in a conversational tone of voice.

Hermione was sure that he indeed realise, the boy hadn't stroked her as quite that stupid, but it seemed like a good topic to start a conversation with.

She could hear the smile even in the darkness that surrounded them. "It's the risk that makes it fun", he explained, and still sounded bemused in that certain way that would have annoyed Hermione under different circumstances. He sounded as if he knew something no one else did and was quite smug about it, too.

Hermione chuckled softly. She could easily hear that coming from Harry or from Ron.

She turned around to face the boy. In the silvery moonlight that streamed into the Astronomy Tower he looked startling like Harry. She remembered now that his hair was jet-black like Harry's, she just hadn't given it much thought before, when she'd looked at him in the light of her wand for a while. She wondered if his eyes were green like Harry's as well, it would be a startling resemblance.

"That sounds just like a Gryffindor", she noted. Hermione allowed some smug satisfaction to become audible in her own voice, she was quite satisfied with herself that she had managed to figure it out on her own.

Now it's his turn to laugh. He sounded downright gleeful. "Promise me not to run away screaming for your mummy when I tell you?", he teased.

Hermione rolled her eyes at this in mock annoyance, even though he wouldn't be able to see it. "I'll have you know that I'm a Gryffindor myself, unless you disclose to me that you're the Dark Lord in disguise, I'm very unlikely to be scared of you."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, then", he said, but he didn't sounded sorry at all. "I'm just a mere Slytherin student."

Hermione wondered idly if there was any situation in which this self-proclaimed Slytherin wasn't amused in. But Hermione found that she had a bit trouble to believe his words. He seemed just too... tranquil to be one of the snakes. "Really, a Slytherin? You're very different from the Slytherins I know", she admitted, with honest surprise in her voice.

"Why, thank you, I do pride myself on being unique", he retorted smoothly.

The Gryffindor girl grinned. Okay, maybe he was a Slytherin, after all, that cockiness sounded just like them. "I'll just have to believe that for the moment, don't I?"

"Yes, you do."

There was nothing left to say for the moment and both continued their quiet watch of the stars and the moon.

"So, are you a pureblood, then?", he asked out of the blue. He sounded so nonchalant that it's obvious that this was of importance to him.

Hermione rolled her eyes, this time seriously annoyed. Just when she enjoyed herself... Without a conscious effort to do so, she approached him. "You'll have to return the favour and promise not to run away screaming, either."

"I doubt you could come up with a heritage scary enough to cause me to run away", he said snottily.

"I'm muggle-born." Hermione gazed attentively at his face to gauge his reaction.

There was a flicker of something on his face, just for a moment, then his expression was back to carefully wiped blank. But for a moment, strong emotions had played out on his face, something like disgust or revulsion, but Hermione couldn't be sure in the darkness. "As you see, it fails to impress me", he said, but he sounded stiff and reserved now.

Hermione groaned. "I knew that this would happen, I should have just gone along and claimed to be a pureblood", she said, irritated. "What is it with you Slytherins and purebloods? Aren't there more important things? What is a pureblood worth when he's almost a Squib? I'm a good witch, top of my classes, why can't I be worth at least half as much as you purebloods?", Hermione demanded angrily. She realised in a detached part of her mind that she got agitated over nothing here, this particular Slytherin hadn't even insulted her yet, but she couldn't find it in herself at the moment to care enough to calm down. Idly, that detached part of her mind wondered why the opinion of a boy who's name she didn't even know mattered to her.

"I didn't said anything and I wasn't about to say anything, there is no need to get defensive", he said in a calming manner.

Why did she felt relieved? Shouldn't she be indifferent? Hermione hung her head in shame. "I'm sorry. I didn't wanted to lash out at you, it's not your fault, I don't even know you."

He chuckled amusedly. "Let me guess, I was just convenient?" He sounded teasing again, or maybe rather mocking, but at least the stiffness was thankfully gone.

"Uh..." Hermione halted and pondered it for a while. "That about sums it up", she admitted sheepishly.

He sounded as if he was just about to begin to say something, but then he quietened again. After a while, he said hesitantly, "let me tell you something that I don't normally give away so easily... I'm not pure either, if that makes you feel any better. I'm just a half-blood." He spat that word out like a dirty swearword, obviously disgusted with it.

Hermione shot him a stern look. "There's nothing wrong with being a half-blood!", she said vehemently. "You're just as much a wizard as every pureblood, it's nothing to be ashamed of!"

"But it is", he replied, he didn't miss a beat. "You don't need to sugar-coat the truth for me, I can bear it. I know that being just half and half just makes me half as much of a wizard." He snorted derisively. "Even you muggle-borns are more wizards than I am. I'm just a miserable half-blood and there's nothing you can do to beautify the bitter truth." He had stiffened again, but this time Hermione was convinced that she wasn't the cause.

Hermione huffed with downright indignation. "No, you're not, and I won't stop before you realise it, too! I don't sugar-coat or beautify anything, I'm just telling you the truth. You're as much of a wizard as every pureblood, get that finally into your thick head!"

"I didn't confided in you so you could comfort me", he sneered, his voice laced with scorn. "I don't need comfort, I have better than that. One day very soon already, I'll be so powerful that my blood and my heritage won't matter anymore. The purebloods will all look up to me and do my every bidding. I don't need your comfort, for I'll have their fear."

To Hermione's ears, that sounded rather petulant. He reminded her of a little boy no one had wanted to play with, a boy who vowed that he would get back at everyone for harming him once he's all grown up. But if that idea was what gave him comfort, then far be it from Hermione to crush or sully his dream. She knew that one needed dreams sometimes, when she had cried after she'd been insulted and mocked, she had also found comfort in the notion that one day, she would be a far greater witch than these bullies.

But the determination with which he spoke chilled Hermione to the bone. He was a Slytherin and he would stop at nothing to reach his goal. She wondered for a moment if Tom Riddle's Dark career to become Lord Voldemort had begun similarly many years ago.

"I'm curious, I always thought that only purebloods could be sorted into Slytherin." Hermione winced. That hadn't been a smooth subject change, but it would have to do.

He halted, as if he just now realised that he'd given away too much already. "There are exceptions to every rule", he finally said hesitantly.

Again, they both fell silent.

He didn't seem willing to give away more and Hermione wasn't sure what topic would be safe to talk about. Before she would mess up, she rather stayed quiet.

Hermione didn't just noted the star constellations visible in this cloudless night, she also mused about this mysterious boy in her company. He looked so completely enraptured by the stars, as if he could forget about the rest of the world and travel to them in his mind.

Maybe he could. He hadn't exaggerated, he indeed seemed to be an unique Slytherin.

Wordlessly, Hermione crossed the last distance that separated her from the grey stone banister and the Slytherin boy perched on top of it. The lapel of her robe brushed against his as she peered around him for the rest of a certain star constellation, she propped her elbows up on the sill.

Moonlight bathed them both, light and shadow played on the features of the boy.

Hermione noticed that he wore an old-fashioned haircut. His robe was a bit different from hers as well, but maybe he just had a different tailor. She didn't wanted to think too much about these peculiarities and it's easier to explain them away.

Hermione's gaze became transfixed on the Slytherin crest on his robe. The Slytherin snake was both an unpleasant reminder of their differences and a welcome anchor to the real world.

This whole encounter was so surreal that Hermione doubted occasionally if she didn't just imagine it all. She knew that an imaginative mind could come up with a lot, certainly with a man like this one. He seemed too good to be true, anyway. But her mind wouldn't be able to make up a Slytherin crest in such detail, would it?

She found that she really didn't enjoyed to think about it.

For the moment, she was quite satisfied to believe that everything around her was real – or a figment of her imagination.

Her gaze flickered to the Head Boy's badge on his chest.

Reality crumbled around Hermione.

She would know him if he was the actual Head Boy. Handsome, charming Slytherin half-blood Head Boys didn't just pop in out of nowhere.

So it was just a dream, after all. Hermione wondered if she could maybe convince her mind to turn this into a warm summer night, she's freezing.

Hermione felt strangely disappointed. It was cruel of her subconscious mind to create wonderful visions of attractive, nice boys and tease her with them, just to make her realise that they were no more real than Lockhart's glorious battles.

"What is up? Have I got spinach stains on my robes?", the Slytherin asked, worried.

Hermione looked up at his face with a startled expression. "Excuse me? No... no, you don't." She was proud that she had managed to make her reassurance sound firm at the end of the sentence, at least. "Your robes are fine. I just noticed the Head Boy badge only now."

The boy nodded solemnly. "Ah, yes, the badge... I still can't believe that they made me Head Boy. I'd been convinced they would take a Gryffindor goody-two-shoes or one of those snobbish Ravenclaw know-it-alls.

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't seemed surprised at her statement, which should have been perceived as rather curious under normal circumstances. Hermione was grateful that her subconscious was at least co-operative when it came to the task to maintain the illusion. "I hope I'll be Head Girl next year", she admitted. "I think my chances are good."

His eyes narrowed slightly. "You know, it's funny that I have never noticed you before. I pride myself on knowing most of the academic top achievers in all the Houses. It's kind of what a Head Boy has to know."

Hermione made just a noncommittal noise, just in case this should turn out to be some kind of alternative reality, after all.

"Know what else is funny?", he asked with a small smirk.

Hermione peered at him. "What?", she asked, though she did so rather unenthusiastically.

"I haven't even asked you yet what you're doing in the Astronomy Tower in the middle of the night. Patrols are Head Boy duties as well." He shot Hermione a mock stern glare. "By all means, I should have dragged you to a Professor already."

Hermione stifled a little yawn. "But you won't, you like me", she said, convinced. And he wasn't real, she added in her thoughts, so he couldn't get her into trouble anyway. "I drank some of the spiked punch. It wasn't enough that I would be drunk, but I can never sleep when I've drunk alcohol."

"Mhm. Well, you should go to bed soon if you want to get any sleep tonight."

Hermione shot him a crooked grin. "But I rather like it here. And you would make a nice pillow if I weren't worried that I might topple you over the edge." Sleep deprivation and the knowledge that this was her dream and she could damn well do whatever she wanted in her own dream had loosened Hermione's tongue quite a bit, she was amazed at herself.

He laughed. "I'm not that easy to kill, don't worry. But I think I should move inside soon, I might nod off. Personally, I don't fancy myself as a red blot on the pavement just yet."

Hermione murmured in agreement.

The dark-haired Slytherin moved back into the Astronomy Tower. He cowered against the wall, Hermione next to him, to protect himself from the icy wind as good as he could in the Tower.

Hermione leant her head against the boy's shoulder and finally permitted her heavy eyelids to fall shut. She was still a bit cold, but it's better now that the wind didn't reach her that much anymore. And her companion's body warmth helped as well, it was nice to sit so close to him.

They spent the hours till morning with idle chit-chat and friendly bantering. Both were reluctant to give away more about themselves, but nonetheless they had a lively conversation, accentuated here and there with yawns, that made the hours seemingly speed away.

The first hesitant streaks of dawn lightened the sky when the two students finally realised that the night was gone already.

Hermione blinked wearily and rubbed her eyes. They felt as if there was sand in them, but it'd been worth it. And she did sleep at the moment, after all. "I should return to Gryffindor Tower", she said regretfully.

The boy nodded. "So you should. And I'll return to the castle soon as well. You go first, though, I wouldn't want any rumours to be spread if we can help it."

Hermione blushed at the insinuation. "Of course, we wouldn't want that", she echoed. Hermione looked at the boy's face, for the first time she could look at it clearly.

With light, the resemblance to Harry was even more startling. If it wouldn't have been a figment of her imagination, she would have been greatly unsettled by his appearance.

"You're handsome", she blurted out. Hermione bit down on her bottom lip. After a whole night without sleep, she tended to say stupid things that got her into trouble. It would be better to leave now, before she could make matters worse. Her own subconscious certainly would appreciate the effort. Hermione shot the boy her most dazzling smile. "Thank you, this was a wonderful night. I haven't had that much fun in ages!" Acting out of an impulse, she leant forward and kissed him chastely on the lips for a moment.

The boy's eyes widened with surprise, but he reacted no more than that.

Hermione quickly stood up. She wrapped her cloak tighter around her body, she was chilled to the bone after all these hours. "You wouldn't believe how much I look forward to a hot bath now", she muttered. Hermione walked to the staircase, but just before she reached it, she turned around. "I still don't know your name."

He flashed her a definitely Slytherin-ish smirk. "Maybe I'll tell you next time." The boy nestled at his Head Boy badge for a moment, then he threw it in Hermione's direction. "I have nothing better, keep it as a remembrance."

Hermione caught the badge instinctively. She stared at the little green and silver badge with the "H" in amazement. "But you need it", Hermione argued half-heartedly.

The boy shrugged carelessly. "I'll just claim that I lost it and they'll give me a new one. I lose things all the time."

For a fleeting moment, Hermione wondered if he "lost" things the same way that Luna Lovegood did. She wouldn't put it past the Slytherins. But it would have been rude to ask that. Hermione closed her hand around the Head Boy badge with a smile. "Thank you." She searched her mind for something she had on her to give to him in return, for she felt the need to do so now. If she would have worn a Gryffindor scarf or tie, she would have given him this, but she didn't. She could hardly give him her cloak and run back in her night clothes to the castle. So she just plucked the woollen red-and-gold comforter from her neck and handed it to the Slytherin boy. "It's the best I can do right now", she said with an embarrassed smile. She laughed teasingly. "And you might want to wear it, maybe it can still save you from a cough."

For a moment, the boy looked at the scarf in the despised House colours doubtfully, but then apparently the cold won out and he wrapped it loosely around his neck. He peered at it with an expression so sceptical, it's downright comical. "Thanks."

Hermione laughed at the sight of the Slytherin cloak and Gryffindor tie, they clashed horribly, the expression on her new friend's face made her laugh all the harder. She was definitely grateful for her badge, she felt no need to look that hilarious while prancing around the school half-frozen.

She wished that she would be able to stay longer, this dream certainly wouldn't come back. But there was no helping it.

With a heavy heart, she walked down the Astronomy Tower and returned to her bed.

Certainly her world would be back to normal in no time at all.

TBC... probably

The next chapter will probably be just about Hermione and it'll also explain why Tom Riddle is so OOC-nice to a muggle-born.


	2. Logic

I'm sorry that it took me so long to post. I was very nervous, because the second chapter is always more difficult for the first, especially when people like it. I don't want to disappoint them with the second chapter then, so I fret a lot about it. Review responses are at the end of the chapter. I want to think all of you who have been so kind, it always cheered me up and encouraged me to continue with the story when I received a nice review.

**Sleepless**

Chapter 2: **Logic**

Hermione was just not herself on that Friday and everyone noticed it.

Fortunately, she had her first class only at ten a.m. and so she's granted at least a bit of sleep in that night, but even so, she had troubles to concentrate on her studies.

At lunch, her friends asked her if she'd spent the whole night partying away, she blushed and told them sternly that of course she wouldn't do that in the night before a school day.

At dinner, she dozed off several times and left already after the main course because she couldn't bear all the questions she was asked. By that time, the whole Gryffindor House was convinced that she'd either spent the night on the party or with someone special. She liked neither assumption, nor the countless inquiries that were the consequence of these assumptions.

Hermione went to bed directly after supper and in hindsight, she would be grateful for her tiredness on Friday, for that way, at least, she didn't had a thought to spare her mysterious encounter on the Astronomy Tower.

Saturday was a completely different matter.

Hermione awoke with a jolt and with the urgent desire, no, the urgent need, to check the pockets of her cloak for the Head Boy badge she had been given in her dream.

When she frantically rummaged around her trunk in search of the cloak and woke up the other Gryffindor girl with the ruckus, she was irritable and just told the whining girls to go back to sleep.

She had more important matters to worry about than their beauty sleep.

Hermione felt bitter disappointment well up in her as she searched pocket after pocket and didn't found anything that remotely resembled a Head badge. The last pocket to search was just a formality because she was a very orderly person, she had already given up hope that she would find it.

Her fingers grazed cool metal. She snatched the little thing and held it up for an inspection.

Hermione paled and at the same time she heaved a sigh of relief. She didn't had a clue what this was about, but this proved that she's still sane, didn't it?

Unless...

Hermione hurried to Lavender's bed, brushed the curtains aside and shook her housemate awake by the shoulder. "Lavender, Lavender, wake up for just a moment, please!"

Lavender made a noncommittal noise.

Hermione decided that it's good enough for the moment and she held the Head badge in front of her face. "Can you see it, too, Lavender? What do you see?"

Lavender looked very confused, but to Hermione's luck, she was willing to play along. She squinted to get a better look at the object. "Well... I see your hand for one thing, Hermione", she grumbled irritably.

Hermione's heart plummeted. So did this mean that she was insane, after all?

"And I see a Head badge." She flashed Hermione a Cheshire Cat smile. "Hey, nifty, Hermione, I didn't thought that you would have it in you! So who's the lucky Head?", she teased.

The bushy-haired Gryffindor blushed the same shade of red as the hangings of Lavender's red-and-gold bed. "I didn't... It wasn't anything like that!", the embarrassed girl stammered. She closed her hand over the Head Boy badge protectively and smiled to herself.

So it had been real, after all... And she wasn't even insane.

Hermione decided that she immediately had to go to the library and read all the books on House Slytherin she could find. Slytherin couldn't have provided Head Boys all the time, so she hoped that she would find some kind of chronicle that mentioned them. Once she knew from what time periods the Slytherin Head Boys were, she could search for "her" Slytherin in the yearbooks. Maybe she was lucky and she would encounter some of the more reasonable Slytherins, whom she could quiz about their House's past members. And when she knew his time, she would be able to narrow down the magical phenomena that had to be responsible for Friday night's strange encounter.

She mapped it all out in her logical mind while she mumbled a thanks to Lavender and hurriedly dressed. Hermione found herself excited both at the huge research task that would certainly prove to be challenging and at the mystery itself. Maybe the Slytherins were right, after all, when they claimed that Gryffindors were too nosy for their own good.

Less than a quarter of an hour later, Hermione was already on the way to the extensive library of Hogwarts.

"Hermione, what are you doing in the library on a Saturday morning? We'll miss breakfast if we don't hurry up!", Ron whined.

Hermione didn't even bothered to look up. On the table in front of her were several book-marked tomes about Slytherin House and a whole stack of yearbooks. Currently, she skimmed through the yearbook 1981/1982, she had figured that it would be most sensible to go backwards in time with her research. "Maurice Mulciber, Maurice Mulciber... why isn't there any picture of him? Was this bloke some kind of phantom?!", a very irritated Hermione grumbled under her breath.

Harry waved his hand in front of her face. "Earth to 'Mione, anyone in there?", he teased lightly.

Hermione smacked his hand to the side. "I can't read this way, Harry!", she snapped absent-mindedly. "And you're not helping, either, Ron, if you want breakfast, then go and get some and don't disturb me anymore!" As soon as Harry's hand didn't obstructed her view anymore, she continued to leaf through the yearbook in search of the illustrious Mulciber.

Harry and Ron both winced as they were told off so sharply. "But what are you doing here in the first place, Hermione?", Harry asked in a very wary tone of voice, as if Hermione might jump up at any given moment and rip out his throat.

"And why are you researching on the bloody Slytherin gits?", Ron added.

Hermione froze in mid-motion.

What to tell them?

She realised just now that it hadn't occurred once to her to tell her friends about the strange encounter on the Astronomy Tower. She couldn't put a finger on the feeling, but strangely enough, it just didn't felt right to tell them.

That meeting with the Slytherin boy had been wonderful and she felt the need to protect her secret.

Hermione realised that if she told Harry and Ron, they probably would think that she had a crush on the boy. She did not, of course, that was utterly ridiculous. So she had kissed him, but it'd just been a little kiss and anyway, boys never understood these things.

Also, they would most likely try to talk her out of researching about him, just because he was a Slytherin and as such, he had to have some evil scheme. Certainly they would be worried, but Hermione believed herself to be quite old enough to know what was good for her and what wasn't. She didn't need some overprotective boys, no matter how good friends they were, to interfere in matters like this one.

They would never be able to understand what had happened on the Astronomy Tower and why it was so important for her to find evidence that she hadn't just dreamed it all, they hadn't been there and felt the way she had.

Hermione felt guilty as she smiled at the boys and told them in her best know-it-all tone of voice, "it is an extra credit project for Professor Binns, if you must know. I have to write a paper about the lives of Slytherin Head Boys and Girls at Hogwarts and what became of them later in life. You would do well to ask the Professors of your NEWT classes for some extra credit work as well, rather than to spend all your free time on the Quidditch pitch and drooling over girls. NEWTs are just a year and a half away."

Yes, she felt indeed terrible for her lie. As sixteen years old teenagers with different genders, it was natural that she didn't told the boys absolutely everything, but she didn't lied blatantly to them if she could help it.

They would be so furious if they ever found out...

Ron and Harry both raised their hands in mock surrender. "Okay, okay, we will leave you alone", Ron said good-naturedly. "We'll try to sneak you some food into the library, you must be hungry.

Hermione finally looked up and smiled broadly at her friends. They could be thick-headed idiots sometimes, as most males tended to be at some points in their lives in her opinion, but she's glad that they were her friends. "Thank you, Ron."

The boys said goodbye to her, Hermione mumbled something that sounded like, "see you later", then she was already completely immersed in the yearbook.

"Maurice Mulciber, Maurice Mulciber", she muttered again and chewed absent-mindedly on her quill.

Finally, she found the boy, but he looked nothing like the boy from the Astronomy Tower.

With a frustrated groan, Hermione added the yearbooks with Mulciber to the as yet small pile of books she'd already dealt with.

She fetched the book at the far end of the table. "Let's see who's next on the list", she muttered under her breath. "Lestrange... No, I don't think so, Lestranges are fanatics, none of them would have a child with a Muggle and let it live. Next..."

By the time that Hermione had reached the 50s, Harry and Ron had long-since returned from breakfast. They hadn't managed to sneak her some food from breakfast, because they'd had porridge, ham and eggs this morning, so they'd fetched her some chocolate from Gryffindor Tower.

"How much longer will it take?", Ron asked impatiently.

"Probably a week", Hermione replied sourly. She stuffed another piece of chocolate into her mouth. She's so excited about her research, she felt that she's very close to her target, that it's easy to ignore the hunger, but since her friends had made such an effort to have her fed, she felt obligated to eat the chocolate.

"Another failure", Hermione groaned when she found a picture of the Head Boy from 1959/60. "This would have been much easier if I'd have just been told the name", she grumbled very softly, so that Harry and Ron couldn't hear her.

She looked through her stack of books for the yearbook from 1946/47 next. When she'd finally found the old book, Hermione leafed through it as she had done with the others, in the hope that she would either find the Head Boy's name or recognise his picture, whatever happened first. "If you want to play Quidditch, I won't hold you back", she told her friends. "You can't help me here anyway." Well, actually, she corrected herself in her thoughts, they could, but if she explained the task to them, they would get even more suspicious than they were already.

The robes looked right and the kind of haircuts did as well, Hermione was optimistic that it wouldn't take more than two more Head Boys to find her mystery boy from the Astronomy Tower.

She smiled triumphantly as her mind belatedly processed the letters on one of the last pages. "Gotcha, Riddle", she whispered. Hermione leafed back two pages, to look right into the eyes of the boy she'd searched for.

It was a black-and-white picture, though the quality was far better than the quality of a Muggle picture from the 40s.

The boy winked at her, his lips shaped into one of those amused smirks and for an uncanny moment, Hermione had the distinct feeling that the boy from the photograph recognised her just as much as she recognised him.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle, so that's your name", she muttered.

She had the distinct feeling that this name should have rung a bell, that she'd heard it sometime before, but at the moment, she just couldn't remember where she'd heard or read it.

Harry and Ron leaned forward to find out what interested their friend so much.

Ron's face scrunched up into an expression of intense concentration as he tried to make out the minute script upside down. "Rib... Rin... Riddle? Hey, Harry, wasn't that the name of the You-Know-Who from Ginny's diary?"

Hermione's stomach plummeted.

This was bad, extremely bad...

Harry nodded. "Yeah, that's him, Voldemort. He looks a bit older here than he did when I fought him, but that's definitely him."

Hermione stood up so hastily that she toppled over a chair. "I think I'm going to be sick", she gurgled out and pressed a hand firmly against her mouth. Her gaze was transfixed to the picture in horror.

Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Lord Voldemort.

She'd kissed Lord Voldemort...

Hermione felt the bile rise up in her throat and she dashed out of the library at top speed as if Voldemort himself chased her to reach a sink in time.

The boys wore twin expressions of worry and confusion on their faces as they stared at the place where their friend had sat just a moment ago.

"Do you reckon we should check on her?", Ron asked, worried.

Harry shook his head. "If we go into the girls bathroom, we'll get hexed", he pointed out sensibly.

Hermione finished to rinse out her mouth and turned off the tap.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror and forced herself to smile weakly, just to make sure that this was really her.

If she wouldn't indeed deal with ghosts on a daily basis, she would have claimed that she looked as if she'd just seen one.

In a way, she thought, she had. Tom Riddle couldn't be more than a ghost from the past, it was impossible that the actual him had appeared in the year 1996 when he apparently hadn't even been aware of it.

"There exists no natural time travel phenomenon, there exists no natural time travel phenomenon, there..."

"You look horrible, dear", the mirror said.

Hermione jumped, she gave a little, terrified scream. Accusingly, she glared at the talking mirror. "Well, you would, too, if you were in my shoes", she said stubbornly.

"What is it, dearie? Heartbreak? I have dealt with more heartbreak in the time that I have hung here than you would think possible", the mirror said.

"Just leave me in peace", Hermione pleaded. She felt suddenly so very tired.

And once she was out of here, she would have to deal with the questions of her friends, she realised with a feeling of dread.

As pale and distressed as she looked, they would never believe her that it's nothing.

Hermione pinched her cheeks in a futile attempt to force some colour back onto her face, her mother had always claimed that it helped when she was a little girl.

For a moment she entertained the thought to avoid Harry and Ron for the rest of the school year or at least the rest of the day. But she felt miserable enough already because she lied to them and kept an important secret from them, she felt no desire no make it even worse.

With a resigned groan, she brushed her hair back and dried her hands, then she left the bathroom.

Hermione was relieved that Harry and Ron didn't waited for her in front of the bathroom. For a moment, she was again tempted to search herself some retreat where they couldn't find her. But she had left a mess in the library that Madame Pince would never forgive her for and she still had these pesky pangs of conscience.

Sometimes, Hermione thought, she would be very grateful for a less active conscience. It would make life considerably easier.

She felt as if she walked to her own execution as she walked back into the library and approached her desk. "Hi." She greeted her friends with a weak smile.

As she had feared, the boys immediately swooped down on her like some overly protective mother vultures. They fired off questions at light speed.

Hermione raised her hands to ward them off. "Pals, I can't answer your questions if you speak both at the same time, I don't understand you." She smiled sheepishly as she returned to her chair. She's grateful that one of them apparently had righted her chair again before Madame Pince could find it. "I'm fine, I was just overcome with nausea, but I'm feeling well again now. I guess my stomach just didn't liked the chocolate on an empty stomach." She gave a minute shrug, as if she couldn't care less.

"You should see Madame Pomfrey", the boys said at the same time.

"Okay, just let me bring these books back to their shelves and then I'll see her about a stomach-calming potion. Madame Pince will have my head if I leave the desk in the state it's in now."

"And you're sure you're feeling fine now?", Harry asked. Both looked reluctant to leave Hermione. "I don't think you should study so much. We have Quidditch training soon, I think you should rest while we're gone and later we can play some games or just talk, we haven't done that in a while." Harry picked up a stack of yearbooks to return them and Ron followed suit.

Hermione heaved a sigh of relief. She wasn't fooled that she would escape the Spanish Inquisition, but at least her friends were willing to postpone it. "I still have a lot research to do, but I guess I'll find some free time sometime today", she gave in reluctantly. Hermione moved to close Tom Riddle's yearbook, but she froze.

Again, her gaze met the photograph-Tom Riddle's.

A shiver ran down her spine.

The scariest thing in Hermione's mind wasn't even that the boy she had spent an enjoyable night of conversation with was to grow up to become Lord Voldemort. Even more scary than that in itself was that she wouldn't hesitate to return tonight if she would get another chance to meet him.

Resolutely, Hermione snapped the book shut and returned it to the shelf with the rest of the yearbooks. She memorised where the 30s and 40s yearbooks were stored, so she could find them faster when she returned later to check them out.

Soon, the rest of the books were returned as well and Hermione had her notes stuffed messily into her bookbag.

To her annoyance, Harry and Ron insisted to accompany her to Madame Pomfrey. Few times before had Hermione been as grateful for Quidditch training as she was on that Saturday.

Once she returned to the library, the first thing that Hermione did was to check out the seven yearbooks with photographs of Tom Riddle in them. She didn't wanted to take any chances with her friends again.

Then, she dedicated herself to the huge task to figure out what had exactly happened to make a meeting possible that defied all natural laws and how it had happened. She consulted both Muggle science books and magical books, but the first problem was encountered quickly.

Hermione just wasn't able to concentrate on the books.

Whenever she tried to tackle temporal difficulties, her mind conjured up memories from that fateful encounter in the Astronomy Tower.

She truly had had more fun than she'd in a long time. It was fun to talk to Tom Riddle, he didn't gave her funny looks when she tried to discuss schoolwork with him like her fellow Gryffindors did. While they had skirted around all touchy topics, she still believed that she'd got a better understanding of the way he was and thought at that age than most people from her generation and the past one as well did.

It was so incredibly difficult to grasp it that the nice boy she'd met Thursday night was a man who would grow up to be responsible for the murder of countless innocents.

And wasn't he a murderer already, hadn't he opened the Chamber of Secrets and killed Moaning Myrtle already during his Hogwarts years?

Hermione wanted answers, she wanted them right away and it drove her mad that the more she thought about him, the more questions popped up that only he was able to answer.

And that encounter, it certainly must have been an one-of-a-kind opportunity.

These thoughts brought up other thoughts. Had he played with her all the time? But if he had caused that time travel or whatever it was on purpose, would he have wasted the night on her then? He could have searched Harry or Dumbledore, someone who would have been of more use to him, whatever reason he might have had for a visit in this time. Even as she dissected every memory she had of the night, she couldn't remember that she'd said anything that would have made that conversation a worthwhile one for the young Dark Lord.

And while she's at it... Why did she even care?

It would be sensible to tell Professor Dumbledore so he could have the Order investigate possible time travels and forget about it.

Maybe her housemates had been right, after all, when they teased her about a crush. It wasn't like her to be so unreasonable.

A snapping noise caused Hermione to look at her hands, placed on the table.

She had broken a quill and ink had spilt over a new scroll of parchment.

Hermione threw the broken quill into a dustbin and got a new one out of her book bag.

Before she could dip the new quill into the inkwell to make doodles on the now useless parchment, Hermione's hand froze.

What if something... had been released? Wasn't Halloween the ancient Celtic Samhain feast, when the veil that separated the world of the dead and the world of the living was believed to be the easiest to penetrate? What if it was the same with time...?

She slapped a hand against her forehead. "Of course, why didn't I think of this before?!", she exclaimed loudly.

Hermione dropped the quill in the inkwell and hurried to the mythology section.

Sunday night, Hermione had returned to the Astronomy Tower as she'd done already the night before.

While she leafed through one the yearbooks and searched for more pictures of Tom Riddle, apparently, he's rather camera-shy, she reflected on her quest.

So far, the results had disappointed her.

Hermione had spent the weekend figuratively speaking buried under heaps of books in the library.

She had checked everything. She had looked for old legends about spontaneous time travels, she had read everything she could find about Halloween and it's Celtic predecessor Samhain as well as all the important books about magical mishaps, time spells, astronomy and astrology, she had even got a pass for the Restricted Section to check up on Dark spells for time manipulation.

She had learned a lot over the weekend and found some interesting and promising information, but nothing was conclusive enough to make for a decent theorem.

Whenever she thought she had found her explanation, she had discovered some puzzle piece that just didn't fit into the picture.

It was extremely frustrating, all the more so, because Hermione feared that she might pass up another chance to meet with Tom Riddle because she wasn't able to figure out how to in time.

She knew, she just knew that she missed out on an important detail.

She also knew that once she realised what it was, she would be frustrated with herself because it would certainly turn out to be something ridiculously obvious.

A gust of wind ruffled Hermione's bushy hair, she shivered.

The Gryffindor girl made a mental note to get herself on the next Hogsmeade weekend another scarf, she'd realised too late that the one she'd given Tom Riddle was her only one. Damn him.

Her heartbeat quickened. Hermione had that eerie feeling that someone watched her, that she wasn't alone anymore in the Astronomy Tower. There was something or someone that caused a shiver to run down her spine.

Her brown eyes darted nervously through the room. "Harry? Ron? It isn't funny, take off the Invisibility Cloak already." Hermione's hand slid as subtly as she could manage to her wand.

Tbc...

looks sheepish Okay, I admit it, I didn't get to the part why Tom was OOC yet. I promise I'll explain it in the next chapter. To torture you a big more with the cliffhanger, the next chapter will most likely be shorter than chap. 2, it's going to be all Tom Riddle. I hope chap 3 will make the wait worth it :-)

Review responses:

**Dragoness Kaei:** Thank you! I hope you'll continue to like it. And here's the update, just a day after your review :-D

**NecroLord:** Thanks a lot, it pleases me particularly much that you think it's realistic.

**Wanamaker:** blushes Thanks, I'm so glad you liked it.

**TheDragonDancer:** Thank you very much! I'm happy that you like it.

**w1ckedangel:** Originally, it's planned as one. And here's the update

**Meave: **Thanks, you flatter me!

**Luckylily:** I promise you that Ron and Harry will find out. They'll be suspicious by the end of chapter two, though Hermione hasn't picked it up yet, and I don't think it'll take much longer for them to figure at least part of it out. rubs hands in glee That's going to be fun to write...

**JellyBeans: **Oh, thank you, I'm glad you consider this one of the good TR/HG! Yeah, there are really too few stories out there for us poor shippers.

**Lady Evanescence: **Oh, an Evanescence fan, that's great! is totally shocked out of her mind Wow! I never had someone compliment my writing style before, thank you so very much! You've made me extremely happy.

**Vera-Sabe: **Thank you so very much for your lovely long review! I love to receive long reviews, though I'm myself to my own shame lazy, so it makes me feel all pleased that you took the time to write such a long review. When I got the review alert, you made me feel all gooey and wobbly inside, I was so extremely happy. squeaks I'll try my best, just don't come with pitchforks after me! ;-)

**PallasAthena1:** I'm glad you like the way that I portrayed Tom. I wasn't sure how people would receive the way I portrayed him and I hope you'll like him in chapter 3 as well, which will be all from Tom's perspective.

**Zaralya:** I don't know how long it'll exactly become, but I do have a penchant for rambling and am completely unable to keep something short (as proved by the attempted one-shot laughs), so I think that it will at least be of medium-length in the end... I hope, if my Tom and Hermione muses continue to be so nice to me and demand their play time. Und übrigens knuddel schön, noch jemand aus Deutschland hier zu treffen! lach Dann fühle ich mich gleich nicht so allein ;-) I think it's great that you translate Everything I Know, it's one of my favourite stories.

**Princess of Mordor: **Thank you very much, Princess!

**Qoheleth: **xxl-sized glomp Whee, you were my very first first reviewer, thanks a lot!

Well, I hope you'll all like my second chapter, too. Again, thank you all so very much for all your reviews, you made me insanely happy and inflated my ego so much I barely fit through doors anymore! glomps all reviewers I don't think I've ever got so much feedback for just a single chapter and I'm really extremely happy that you have enjoyed chapter one. It's been my first HP story for a long time and you made me feel a lot more secure writing these characters again (and writing Tom for the first time).


	3. In the light of day

I'm SO sorry that it took me so long to update! I had NaNo stress both in October and November, my preparation work was total overkill as usual, then RL was nothing but trouble, too, and in-between I'd been totally out-of-sync with this story.  
I'm also very sorry that there are no answers to the reviews yet, I'll do them later or within the next couple of days. Knowing how lazy I am, I decided to get this chapter out of the house while I'm still motivated, I was worried that if I'd wait to answer all the reviews, then I'd postpone this again. Nonetheless, a huge thank you to all my reviewers! I love you all to pieces!

**Sleepless**

Chapter 3: **In the light of day**

In the comfortable four-poster bed in the Head Boy's dormitory, Tom Riddle was in a rather foul mood.

Tiberius Lestrange had already suffered from his mood, when he had come to whine about why Tom hadn't attended breakfast, Tom had chased him out of his dormitory with some very nasty Dark curses, some of which would hopefully permanently impair his family planning. He realised that Tiberius would sulk for days now, which didn't do anything to improve his mood, but by now, he thought, Lestrange really should be used to it that Tom Riddle never apologised. At least never apologised truthfully, that was.

He smirked grimly whilst he continued to stare daggers at the canopy of his four-poster. Tiberius had actually believed that Tom had grown soft, just because he had camped in the library for some days.

Ah, the library…

His thoughts wandered back to the Gryffindor girl and the Astronomy Tower. But then again, when didn't he think about her?

Tom hated to admit it even to himself and he would certainly send his basilisk on whoever might find out about it, but she had intrigued him. The mystery that surrounded her sudden appearance and disappearance intrigued him all the more. Despite his hate for all things Muggle, he himself was very Muggle in the way his mind worked. He believed in action and reaction and the action the reaction would cause. He believed in facts and in logic. No one did just appear and disappear without a trace, even in the wizarding world. There was a reason, a completely scientific explanation for everything.

The trick was just to be patient and ambitious enough to find that perfectly scientific explanation and to use it to one's own advantage.

Tom knew that this made him a weirdo in Slytherin, at best a Ravenclaw's mind would work that way. But then again, Tom wasn't much of a typical Slytherin in anything, at least on the surface. He didn't harassed the muggle-borns, not even the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, he didn't seemed to be opinionated on anything, be it the Muggle Protection Laws, the Dementors or Grindelwald's fall. Whenever someone drilled for answers, he smiled and told them that he trusted the Ministry to make the right decisions, he was just a mere student, he didn't understood these matters enough to have an own opinion on them.

Tom was a true snake, slick, flexible and impossible to pinpoint. He prided himself very much on it. What little people knew about his true opinions was such vague that everyone could interpret it in the way they liked.

To be vague made it considerably easier to pursue your ambitions in ways that would not land you in Azkaban straight away.

He had been slick on that night when he had met the Gryffindor girl, too. He hadn't given away much, had talked a lot and said preciously little.

Now in the aftermath, though, he wished that he would have been just a tiny bit more straightforward. Because neither subtlety nor all day sessions in the library had managed to provide him with the answers he yearned for. He had started to believe that she didn't possessed these answers, either, but he's convinced that she could have given him some clues, would he have asked for them.

It had been a funny night, for sure.

Tom had gone to the Astronomy Tower to escape the Halloween party, yet another instance of brainless teenagers who wasted their time with dumb activities such as to kill their few remaining brain cells with alcohol. He would never understand why the school actually supported them in that task.

And then she had come. Tom's first thought had been that she was one of Dumbledore's watchdogs. Indeed, he had been convinced of it. While he was rather popular, he doubted a girl would be quite crazy enough to voluntarily seek out his company in the middle of the night in the otherwise deserted Astronomy Tower. He was popular, for sure, but people were wary of him, too.

He had been convinced of it until she told him that she's muggle-born. If she was to keep him on a tight leash for Professor Dumbledore, then she would try to gain his trust, not try to make him hex her. Dumbledore and his Gryffindor cronies were the only ones who didn't believed in Tom's indifference.

Bit for bit, he had come to notice that something about her was suspicious. The way she talked and acted, the cut of her robes and her hairdo… And when she didn't knew that he was Head Boy, when she told him that she was a Gryffindor Prefect even though he wasted every single day precious minutes of his life away to deal with the dunderheads that claimed to be Gryffindor's finest, not that that said a lot about their capabilities, his suspicions had been confirmed.

Tom didn't knew what she was, let alone who she was, but he knew that she was either a very good actor – and a metamorphagus to boot – or she held a very peculiar secret which he was determined to uncover.

Tom had spent much time with books on past and present Hogwarts students, then he had moved to books about special phenomena that had occurred on Hogwarts grounds. He had found some clues and promising traces, but he still waited for the one big breakthrough.

And then Tiberius Lestrange had the nerve to disturb him. He would never understand that Tom Riddle wasn't just lazy, he had spent every night since Halloween on important research that a pea-sized brain like Tiberius would never be able to grasp anyway, even if Tom would for some strange reason decide to grace him with an explanation.

Last night, Tom had sneaked into the Restricted Section again and he had finally found a book that he felt would provide him with the last missing puzzle pieces. For the rest of the night, he had deactivated various charms and hexes on the book, as well as transfigured and charmed a cheap romance novel to take the place of _Hogwarts' Dyrne Magick - Salazar Slytherin's Deork Laf_. Rarely anyone bothered to use complicated translation spells to read books written in Old English and even fewer understood it, so he was optimistic that he would be done with the book by the time someone would miss it.

With a weary groan, he sat up in the bed, brushed the green-and-silver curtains aside and left the bed. Well, to be honest, it looked more like Tom tumbled out of the bed.

He yawned and cursed under his breath Tiberius Lestrange and all his descendants that the world would hopefully be spared of on his way to the bathroom. It was time to start yet another day of research. He felt it, he just knew it, that he's very close.

Three hours later on the top of the Astronomy Tower, Tom Riddle chewed the last of his pilfered sandwiches whilst he read Hogwarts' Dyrne Magick.

As time had passed, his optimism had increased and by now, Tom was so giddy with excitement that it downright pained him that he wasn't able to tell anyone about his impending success.

"Just that… yes, I can do that… a bit more difficult… yes, that's okay, I'll get to it right away", something like that he muttered under his breath whenever he didn't chewed on a sandwich.

Tom groaned as he picked up footsteps. He quickly angled for his wand and cast a concealment charm on the stolen book that would make it look like one of his History of Magic textbooks, but just in case, he stuffed it into his book bag.

"What are you doing up here all day, Riddle? Honestly, you're such a bookworm, it's embarrassing to have you in Slytherin", Tiberius Lestrange complained.

Tom played "absent-mindedly" with his wand, he waved it in Tiberius Lestrange's direction. "Unless you would like me to learn the Unforgivables on you, Lestrange, buzz off", he said calmly, it sounded more like a statement than like a threat. Not that he needed to learn the Unforgivables anymore, of course, he added in his thoughts, but Tiberius didn't need to know that yet.

The Lestranges second-oldest son, just a fourth year, but already very powerful in Slytherin, didn't looked impressed. "Yeah, sure, Riddle, as if a half-blood could curse me", he scoffed.

Anger flashed in Tom's eyes for a moment. Sadly, the Lestrange boys were among the few who had learned of his heritage and they didn't missed once a chance to rub it in. He hated it that he still let them get to him. "If you don't leave this very instant, Lestrange, you'll take the short cut." He pointedly peered down to the cobblestone far below the Astronomy Tower

Tiberius paled. "Fine, Riddle, have it your way!", he sneered and stalked off.

Tom shook his head and chuckled in amusement. Tiberius really was nothing like his older brother. He's ridiculously easy to get rid off, Tom almost wished for his older brother's return. The Lestrange heir had been two years above Tom and treated him accordingly, but at least he had had an inkling that Tom Riddle was nothing like the harmless, spineless nerd many mistook him for. But soon enough, they would learn their lesson anyway…

He waited until the sound of Lestrange's footsteps was fully gone, then he pulled his book out of the bookbag again, undid the charm and continued to read in silence.

Half an hour later, a broad smile spread on Tom's features. He shut the book with a snap and stored it away. Tom Riddle's green eyes glowed with happiness and triumph.

"Perfect!", he exclaimed in an awed voice.

To be continued…

The title of the book is supposed to be old English (though I doubt that my translation is anywhere near correct, so please bear with me). It means "Hogwarts' Secret Magic: Salazar Slytherin's Dark Heirloom". To translate it I used the vocabulary from: http:www.mun.ca/Ansaxdat/vocab/wordlist.html

Now, to be honest, I'm not completely happy with this chapter. I had planned to make it a bit longer, but after all that time I made you wait, I decided to upload it the way it is and instead make up for taking so long with quicker upload of the next chapters. Trying to make this chapter better is one of the reasons why this one took so long, I wanted to make it longer and more exciting, but in the end, it refused to be more than an interlude chapter. But I promise that the next couple ones will be more exciting! Hermione and Tom will meet again

As a kind of apology gift, I'll give you a chapter list here of what I have planned next. Chapter 4 and 5 are written, but I'll probably do some major editing.  
Chapter 4 – When wonders will never cease 1 – Hermione  
Chapter 5 – When wonders will never cease 2 – Hermione  
Chapter 5 – When wonders will never cease 2 – Tom (maybe)  
Chapter 6 – When wonders will never cease 3 – Hermione  
Chapter 7 – The world doesn't stops – Others


	4. When wonders will never cease Part 1

Here it is, the new chapter! After almost... three months? Eeep! I'm so sorry! My Harry Potter muses left me for a long time, then I had general writer's block and real life was very hectic. But now I'm finally more or less back on track (or so I hope, at least). Review responses at the end of the chapter. 

**Sleepless**

Chapter 4: **When wonders will never cease Part 1**

_Her brown eyes darted nervously through the room. "Harry? Ron? It isn't funny, take off the Invisibility Cloak already." Hermione's hand slid as subtly as she could manage to her wand._

A male voice chuckled amusedly. "Miss Granger, please do not panic. I apologise sincerely, it was not my intention to scare you."

Hermione froze.

Her world slipped into slow-motion as she turned around to face Professor Dumbledore.

Why did she feel so guilty all of sudden?

Oh, what a stupid question. Of course she would feel guilty and she had every reason to feel guilty, too.

This situation reminded Hermione uncannily of the few times when her mother had caught her with her hand in the candy jar. It was not pleasant. These few unpleasant situations when she had been caught by her mother had discouraged her to steal candy for several years. Hermione had always hated to be caught in the act.

She laughed a nervous, fake laugh. At the moment she made the sound, she wished already that she hadn't. Could she be any more obvious? "No problem, Professor Dumbledore. It was my fault, I was just a bit jumpy."

"Nonetheless I'm sorry, Miss Granger." Albus Dumbledore watched his student intently. The amusement was evident in his eyes.

Hermione felt all the more guilty. She averted her gaze demurely. "Is there something you would like, sir?", she blurted out. It was so hard to think straight when you were seized by panic.

Dumbledore always knew everything, didn't he? He would know what she had done…

"Actually, Miss Granger, I just came up here to watch the stars for a while. It's a beautiful night, you don't get the pleasure of a cloudless sky often at this time of the year."

Hermione felt incredibly stupid. Of course, why else would the Headmaster come to the Astronomy Tower? But she didn't quite dared to feel relieved yet. "Yes, it's beautiful, isn't it?" She cursed herself silently, she still sounded way too nervous. Even a Hufflepuff first year would pick up the blatantly faked cheerfulness.

Hermione wondered whether she had already attracted so much suspicion that it wouldn't matter anymore if she fled.

"Beyond doubt, Miss Granger."

She had already got herself into serious trouble, she couldn't make it all that much worse anymore, could she? And if she was very lucky for once, Professor Dumbledore would chalk up her nervousness and her hasty escape to her fear that she might receive a detention because she was out of the Gryffindor Tower past curfew.

Hermione stood up and flashed the Headmaster a nervous smile. "Well, it's late, I think I should return now to my dormitory. I have classes early tomorrow…" She smoothed out imaginary wrinkles and hastily walked to the staircase. She prayed that the Headmaster wouldn't stop her.

Dumbledore sounded even more amused, as he distractedly muttered, "of course, of course, Miss Granger."

"Good night, Professor Dumbledore." Hermione all but fled down the staircase.

She stopped to heave a sigh of relief only when she had reached the foot of the Astronomy Tower.

The Gryffindor Table buzzed with laughter and cheerful chatter.

Hermione felt ready to die. All she could do was to restrain herself so her head wouldn't fall into her bowl of porridge. There were bags underneath her eyes, she looked pale and weary.

She shuddered as she remembered last night. She had been so frantic after her encounter with Professor Dumbledore that she hadn't been able to sleep for the better part of the night. She had spent hours with horror fantasies in which she had been arrested by Aurors because she had consorted with Lord Voldemort and was sent to Azkaban. Even more sickening were the fantasies in which she'd been called to Professor Dumbledore's office, her wand was snapped and she was expelled not only from Hogwarts, but from the whole wizarding world. Professor Dumbledore told her that he was disappointed in her and that he would have expected better from her. Ron and Harry screamed at her, Harry asked if she was happy that his parents had been murdered, if she'd cheered Voldemort on. At some points, she had been unable to differ horror fantasy from nightmare.

Hermione determinedly stuffed porridge into her mouth. Despite that the Hogwarts porridge was better than every other porridge, today, it seemed tasteless to her. Or maybe she was just too preoccupied to taste it. It took all her self-control now not to sneak furtive glances as the wizened wizard, only the certainty that even more suspicious behaviour would spell doom for her gave her the determination not to give in to her instincts.

"Hermione, are you all right?", Harry asked. He looked extremely worried, his forehead was creased into wrinkles, his green eyes bore soulfully into her skull. They shone with nothing but sincere concern.

Hermione glanced at him. "Yes, yes, of course I'm all right, Harry, I'm perfectly fine!", she hastened to reassure.

Ron gazed inquisitively at her. "But you don't look all that well, 'Mione. I think you should see Madam Pomfrey."

Pomfrey? Oh, what if she would tell Professor Dumbledore that she hadn't had a decent night's sleep for so long! "I'm fine!", she repeated sternly.

Harry and Ron's twin gazes were fixed on her forehead. Neither boy looked anywhere near convinced.

"I still think you should see Madam Pomfrey", Ron insisted. He smiled slightly when Harry nodded in agreement. "We're both worried. You're always tired, you barely spend any time with us anymore and even your grades have dropped, though you spend even more time than usually studying, that isn't anything like you. Ever since Halloween you haven't been yourself."

Hermione felt absolutely rotten. Her very best friends in the world were worried sick about her and here she was, betraying them to their worst enemy. She hung her head in shame. "I'm sorry", she said meekly.

Now the boys looked even more confused.

Hermione only realised that maybe she'd made a mistake when the boys stayed silent. She peeked at them cautiously and what she saw made her want to slap herself. They looked all the more wary now. Oh, they knew that was something was up, they certainly knew. What was she to do? The normally level-headed Hermione was very close to a panic attack. She could never have them know the truth, they wouldn't understand! "I… I…" Think, Hermione, think! She always knew the answer to every question in class, why couldn't she think of anything when she needed an answer the most?

While Harry still looked very confused, Ron's face darkened.

Hermione's heart dropped.

The lanky redhead, who sat next to her, growled, "is it a boy, 'Mione? Has he been hurting you? Just tell us his name and we'll take care of him for you!" His voice was grave, he wasn't joking, for sure not.

Harry still looked a bit puzzled, but just as solemn as he gazed expectantly at Hermione.

Oh, he didn't had a clue just how right he was…

Hermione almost smiled. Ron could be so dumb at times that she just wanted to hex him to hell and back and then he would say something so smart and insightful… If that wouldn't have made the boys worry even more about her, she would have liked to hug him. But she could hardly tell them, even if she wouldn't have to worry that they would think she had betrayed them. Harry and Ron endangered their lives quite enough, she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if she caused them to actively go after Voldemort to get revenge for something that had happened 50 years in the past. There was nothing they could do about her meeting with the young Tom Riddle, the damage was already done and nothing short of Obliviate would be able to make her stop her quest in the search for truth and reason.

Only when she felt their expectant gazes figuratively drill a hole into her head, Hermione remembered that the boys still waited for her to answer. She raised her head and hugged them both as good as she could, with the table that separated her from Harry. "I appreciate it, but it's nothing I can't take care of on my own." They both opened their mouths to protest, but Hermione raised a hand to quieten them. "And no, I'm not being hurt. It's just… it's a bit difficult to explain, there's just something that I think a lot about", she admitted reluctantly. Her answers were never so awkward and her best friends were excited by every secret, the vaguer the more enticing, she realised belatedly, certainly that would only spark their curiosity.

"We understand if you don't want to tell us, 'Mione, but it won't stop us from snooping around", Harry said gently. He smiled at Hermione. "And you must promise to tell us if someone hurts you."

"I will, I promise you", she vowed with the appropriate solemnity. Hermione realised that she would probably come to regret that vow, but it's the least her friends deserved. Hopefully it would at least ease their worry, even if it wouldn't do anything to calm herself.

Hermione, who busied herself with her porridge with fervour, missed the meaningful look exchanged by her best friends. Both faces shone with determination. The two Gryffindors would stop at nothing to find out exactly what bothered their best friend. This was a matter of honour.

Hermione turned around in bed.

She told herself firmly that she wasn't to leave tonight. No, she certainly wouldn't. She couldn't risk to be caught by Professor Dumbledore again. Even if he hadn't been suspicious of her true intentions on the Astronomy Tower yet, he would certainly be if he caught her there again.

Three weeks had passed since Halloween.

Except the night after Halloween, she had visited the Astronomy Tower every night, even if she only stayed there for a quarter or half an hour before her tiredness won out, and often she studied up there instead of the Common Room or library lately.

Every night since her encounter with Dumbledore she had promised herself that she wouldn't go that night.

She groaned in frustration as she heaved her weary body out of the bed. Stealth and silence had become familiar companions in the last three weeks. Hermione slipped on the robe and cloak she placed on top of her trunk every evening before she went to bed. By now, she required to wear thick robes and her winter cloak for her nightly strolls. Hermione slipped on the shoes left next to her trunk and crept out of the dormitory.

Hermione felt strangely satisfied with herself that the Common Room was deserted.

She smiled a little self-depreciating smile as she hurried through the Common Room and out of the portrait hole.

It was frightening in a way that man was still such a slave of his own habits after millions of years of evolution and natural selection.

After three weeks, she had found a routine for herself. On school days, she woke up around one a.m., by now, she didn't required the alarm charm anymore that caused her wand to vibrate at a certain time. On weekends, she would leave only around three a.m.. These procrastinators who wasted half the night away in the Common Room had become the bane of her existence.

That urgent need to make good use of every chance, no matter how minute, to meet Tom Riddle again, frightened her even more than the boy himself did. She felt downright guilty whenever she passed up a chance. There were times when she feared that she'd gone insane to be obsessed like this with a boy who would grow up to be the most murderous wizard of their time.

Hermione walked up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower as she had done so often lately. Hermione thought that she must have paid the Astronomy Tower more visits during the last couple of days than in six years of Astronomy classes. By now, the erratic buzz of thoughts that always accompanied her little night-time journeys was familiar.

She never knew exactly what she expected to find, or what she wanted to find.

On one hand, she wanted to meet Tom again. To have learned his identity didn't answered her questions, rather in the contrary, it brought countless new questions up and Hermione knew that she would never be able to forget these questions just because they would stay unanswered, they would always plague her mind.

There was a rush of excitement, the sweet taste of the forbidden.

And yet at the same time, she dreaded the time when she would meet him again. She had enjoyed their last encounter and maybe it would be better to keep the fond memories. Hermione wasn't sure if she really wanted to familiarise herself with Tom Riddle's beyond doubt unpleasant personality. She didn't knew for sure whether she really wanted the answers to her questions.

The only thing that she was certain about was that she would lose more than she could gain, no matter what happened.

Their encounter on Halloween had been a mythical and surreal one-of-a-kind experience, a part of her wanted it to stay that way. That part of her was completely satisfied with a beautiful night spent in pleasant company.

Sadly, there was the inquisitive part of her that would not rest before it knew everything there was to know. Didn't the saying claimed that curiosity killed the cat? Hermione had often secretly agreed with that saying, commonly whenever the curiosity of the Trio had got them into life-threatening situations.

Maybe Hermione had a secret death wish.

For she knew perfectly well that the saying would prove to be true yet another time and still it didn't discouraged her one bit.

She looked forward to their next meeting, she was certain about so much.

Hermione didn't wanted to think farther than that, because these thoughts certainly would turn out to be unpleasant or at least unsettling.

But there was no sense in procrastination.

Hermione unshrunk a fluffy, thick blanket and Hogwarts: A History, both of which she had hidden already in her cloak before she had gone to bed – early as usual lately, since she had to compensate for the sleep lost in the wee hours of morning. She lightened the tip of her wand with the Lumos charm and continued to reread her favourite book.

This had indeed become frighteningly much of a routine.

If Hermione wouldn't have been crept out by the very hint at such a kind of relationship with Tom Riddle, she might have complained to herself that he had condemned her to act like an obedient little wife that waited for her husband's return.

At some point in time, Hermione must have nodded off.

She couldn't remember that she had fallen asleep, but she was aware of it when she woke up.

Hermione mewled softly in displeasure. She stretched very cautiously. Her back hurt terribly from the bent position she'd sat in for god knew how many hours and she didn't even wanted to think about her neck. "Muscle relaxant potion from Madame Pomfrey first thing in the morning", she muttered under her breath.

It's only then that it occurred to her to wonder about the cause of her awakening.

Panic seized her. Filch? Dumbledore? Mrs Norris? Or, even worse than all of those, Snape?

But no matter how intently she listened, she couldn't pick up a single noise that could have woken her up. Sure, owls screeched occasionally, sounds from the Forbidden Forest sometimes reached the Astronomy Tower. But all these sounds must have had occurred the whole time, there was no sensible explanation why they should have woken her up at that exact moment.

Hermione's neck prickled uncomfortably.

This felt suspiciously like a déjà vu of the night when Dumbledore had caught her.

Talk about haunted castles…

"Boo!", someone shouted directly into her ear.

Hermione jolted up and screeched at the top of her lungs, Filch be damned.

Roaring laughter answered Hermione. But it was not the sound of the voice of an old man, or even a middle-aged man, this was the sound of a young man's voice. A very, very smug young man's voice.

Hermione tried to calm down her racing heart and whirled around. Both angry and afraid, she screeched, "just what do you think you're…" Hermione trailed off, her jaw dropped. She felt faint, her knees wobbled and she could virtually feel how her face was drained off all it's colour. Hermione stumbled a step backwards. She stuttered, but no discernible words left her mouth.

The boy smirked. He looked exactly like the proverbial Cheshire cat that had just eaten the canary.

"Tom Riddle!", Hermione finally managed to gasp.

Said Slytherin was again perched precariously on the tower's sill and looked so extremely smug that Hermione would have best liked to slap him, just to wipe that irritating smirk off his face.

"Why, I see you've done your research", he quipped, "good girl. But don't you think it would be polite if you would tell me your own name, too?"

Hermione huffed with righteous indignation. "Just what did you think, to scare me like this, Riddle?", she snapped. "Did you think at all! The shock could have killed me! And by the way, my name is Hermione Granger, not that you deserve to know my name, after you scared me like this."

Hermione was so indignant and angry at the moment, that the fact that she screamed at Lord Voldemort, current Dark Lord, extremely powerful Dark wizard, infamous mass murderer of muggle-borns and Slytherin's Heir, had completely slipped her mind.

If she would have been in her right state of mind, Hermione would have been horrified at herself.

Tom didn't even had the decency to look abashed. He just looked extremely pleased with himself. "Why, that was the point of the whole ordeal", he said flippantly.

With a frustrated groan, Hermione realised that Tom Riddle apparently was in a cheerful mood tonight. He was a bloody annoying cheerful person. "I like you much better when you're all gloom and doom", she grumbled.

"Ah, so you admit that you like me", he stated triumphantly.

Hermione wondered if he did that on purpose. The last time she'd met Riddle, he'd acted completely differently. And frankly, she hadn't been ready for a confrontation with a Tom Riddle on a sugar-high, or whatever it was that had made him so damn chipper. Maybe he just hoped to catch her off guard. At least that would explain his confusing behaviour. Or, she realised with a groan, maybe he just suffered from extreme mood swings. Considering what she'd read about Voldemort's unpredictable behaviour, it really shouldn't have surprised her.

Hermione heaved a long-suffering sigh. She marvelled at her own calmness. Maybe all these adventures with Ron and Harry paid off, after all. Not even a time travel phenomenon managed to ruffle her feathers anymore, now that's really something very few people could truthfully claim. "Stop it, Riddle, we don't have time for your silliness. I don't know how much time we have and I don't know either if we can ever meet again, so I'd like to swap research notes with you. If you were only half as good a student as everyone claims, then you should have done some research on our mysterious encounter."

And just why did it feel so bloody surreal again?

With a sinking feeling of dread, Hermione realised that maybe this time, it's really just a dream.

Maybe she'd fallen asleep in the Astronomy Tower, just as she guessed, but she hadn't woken up yet. It wouldn't be the first time that she dreamt of Tom Riddle, just that the other dreams had been easily recognisable as such.

Hermione blushed as her mind supplied her unbidden with memories from the dreams.

No, bad mind, she wouldn't go there while she had to deal with the real version of junior Dark Lord.

Tom's amusement wilted and died within seconds. Now, he looked at her in the same way that she looked at a fascinating animal specimen she encountered in one of her Care of Magical Creatures lessons. "So my assumption was correct", he simply stated.

"Well, if your assumptions are just a bit like mine, then, yes. Why don't you tell me your assumptions?", Hermione asked. She had adopted a businesslike tone as well now, the Gryffindor girl was proud of that achievement. After all the time she had spent obsessing about Tom Riddle, she believed it to be quite a feat.

Tom hesitated for a few moments, he seemed to ponder how much he would give away.

Hermione pursed her lips as she waited impatiently for the boy to answer her.

Tom graced her with a benevolent smile that stroke Hermione as rather patronising.

She itched to get out her wand and at least smack him with it over the head, if she wouldn't be able to curse him through space and time. Alone for that smirk he deserved some of Ginny's bat bogey hexes, though, no doubt there.

"Do you want to hear my assumptions or do you want answers?", Tom asked smartly.

Yes, definitely some bat bogey hexes. And some Furnunculus as well. Hermione's wand hand twitched, she graced Tom with her best glare of doom. "Both, if you would be so kind", she said sarcastically.

Tom's lips twitched and broke into an amused smirk.

Oh why, why did all these Slytherins have to smirk like that? Didn't they knew just how infuriating that was? On second thought, of course they would know, they're Slytherins, after all, and masters at all things annoying. Hermione didn't knew why she had fallen prey to such illusions, but she had really hoped that Tom Riddle, though Slytherin's Heir, would be a bit less infuriating. Now in the aftermath, of course, she realised just how naïve that had been. It was probably in these snake genetics of his, too.

Reality returned, trickle for trickle.

Tom Riddle equalled Heir of Salazar Slytherin.

Heir of Salazar Slytherin equalled Lord Voldemort.

Lord Voldemort equalled very nasty, big bad, Dark wizard who enjoyed to kill among others innocent muggle-born teenage girls.

She had snapped at the Dark Lord.

Was she still alive?

Irrational as it was, Hermione wouldn't have been surprised if she would have found the translucent body of a ghost when she looked down her body. After all, Binns apparently hadn't noticed either yet that he was dead, maybe she could have been killed by Avada Kedavra and not have noticed it. To have snapped at Lord Voldemort, after all, hadn't been an act of intelligence, either. Maybe she had cracked under the strain, just like Harry had warned her she might if she continued to study at that pace.

Hermione was very relieved when she found her body intact and solid. She was certain that her face was drained of all colour, but at least she was still alive.

Ever so slowly, she raised her head again and gazed at Lord Voldemort.

But he wasn't, or was he?

Where Hermione had been convinced that Lord Voldemort would have been furious with her cheekiness and probably would have cast Cruciatus on her already after her first impudent sentence, Tom Riddle merely looked extremely amused.

He stretched leisurely on his breezy perch and gazed out of heavy-lidded eyes at Hermione. "Why, I do pride myself on my impeccable manners", he drawled loftily, but he still looked merely amused, not angry.

Hermione cleared her throat nervously. Okay, so he hadn't cursed her yet. That didn't mean that he wouldn't think of it later. Maybe it would be best to keep him distracted, she could always listen to his side of the story later. And while she talked, while she recited facts and the results of her research, at least she would be distracted, too. Research was her forte, it was unlikely that she would do something stupid or have a slip of tongue that might anger Tom Riddle enough to cast an Unforgivable on her, after all.

"Well, I have researched a lot in the library since we met for the first time, Tom. Actually, it took me a whole morning to find out your identity. Fortunately, you're a Slytherin, if you would have been a Ravenclaw, it could have taken me days to look up all the Head Boys." Hermione winced. She would have liked to be a House Elf right now, who could beat her head against the wall without that people would consider this unusual.

Way to go, Hermione, she scolded herself mentally. Insult his House. Wonderful. At this rate, she would be dead before the hour was over.

"How fortunate", Tom agreed wryly.

Again, Hermione cleared her throat. She thought that she started to resemble Umbridge in a very unsettling manner. "Anyway", she said sternly in a desperate attempt to regain her dignity, "I have researched all books on time travel phenomena that I could find in the Library, even these in the Restricted Section. But what happened shouldn't have happened. Time is a flux, I realise that, but we should still not have met. I thought that something would have been released on Halloween, something related to Samhain Lore. A release of raw magical power, probably. But it doesn't makes sense that it happened again tonight, unless of course, tonight is a night with similar powers as Halloween. But I doubt this greatly, I researched wizarding holidays as well and there shouldn't be one with such effects in late November."

While she recited all her steps in research, Hermione lit her wand tip and rummaged around her book bag for her notes. She always carried them with her, just in case she got a spark of inspiration. She made two neat stacks, one with notes and books that concerned their topic at hand, the other with her ordinary school things. Once she had got all notes, she returned latter pile into the bag and rummaged around her possessions for what notes she should give Tom first.

"Now it would be interesting to narrow down the possibilities and I think for that, we should do some magical tests. Let's cast some simple spells and see if they have any effect. If they do, we might possibly be in the same time at that moment, but if we don't, I think it's very likely that we merely meet as persons, we are still in our respective Astronomy Towers in our times. Of course, that you were able to give me your Head badge and it still existed in my time is also a clue. Say, what happened to the scarf, did you keep it?" Hermione didn't really expected Tom to answer her, not without further probing. She was used to it that her friends would either interrupt her monologues or zoom out soon after she'd started. So Hermione was quite surprised when Tom didn't missed a beat.

"Fascinating theorem, but do you have evidence for them collected? And yes, I do still have your scarf. Since you're apparently from a time after mine, it interests me more, though, if the Head badge looks old."

Hermione handed Tom the stack of parchments. "Here you are, all the evidence I collected. The badge still looks no older than when you gave it to me, I just checked it in the morning." Hermione blushed slightly as she realised the implications that came with this confession. Actually, she'd often discovered herself these last couple of weeks as she stared at the badge, lost in her thoughts. It had become an item that comforted and unsettled her at the same time, for it symbolised the happy memories she had of their first encounter as much as the internal conflict that came with it.

Tom lightened his own wand and fully immersed himself in Hermione's notes. "You're very organised", he noted wryly.

Hermione snorted, both amused and annoyed. She wriggled into a more comfortable position on the floor and wrapped the blanket tighter around her. She felt that it was very wrong that she would sit at Tom Riddle's feet, but it's too cold and windy tonight to preserve your pride.

Neither was sure how much time passed while Tom studied Hermione's notes and the book-marked sections in some heavy tomes she'd brought along. He concentrated completely on the work at hand and Hermione found that to be a welcome change from study sessions with Ron and Harry, who often quickly lost interest in their notes. Few words were spoken, they only broke the comfortable silence to comment on a particular note, explain something in more detail and discuss the mechanics of a theorem.

Tom seemed rather impressed with Hermione's thorough work and this pleased her more than she would have liked to admit.

When you ignored the fact that this here was the future Lord Voldemort and already a murderer with 17 years, which Hermione was very happy to ignore for the moment, it was actually fun to work with Tom Riddle.

She found to her own amazement that she itched to ask Tom about more than just their pet temporal phenomenon. She wanted to hear his explanation why he had opened the Chamber of Secrets, she wanted to hear in his own words why he had created the diary with his memories, why he had killed Myrtle and blamed it on Hagrid.

And to her own horror, she realised that she didn't wanted to hear his explanation simply because she wanted to fill the gaps in her knowledge about the incidents in her second year or even because she was curious why he had done these horrible things. What she truly yearned for, that was a justification. She wanted him to make sense, she wanted him to be right, wanted it to be an accident or a crime committed out of anger, something, just anything that would ease her conscience.

It was alarming.

Hermione shook her head in amazement. She was truly on the best way to complete and utter madness.

And all that just because she'd suffered from insomnia on Halloween night…

She had to distract herself. Yes, just distract herself from these frightening, traitorous thoughts. She could always fret later, when she's back in the safety of her dormitory. But right now, she had to stay calm and just as level-headed as everyone expected her to be even in the most life-threatening situations. It's easier, though, she realised to keep her calm when she had friends to bring out of danger or someone else to help save than when she was completely on her own, with only her own, crazy mind and a dangerous Dark wizard to keep her company.

Hermione screwed her eyes shut. It would not do to panic. Calm. Calm was good. Very good. Focus on the problem at hand.

Okay, she could do that. Where were they again? Right, her research. So the next step would be his research, wouldn't it? Hermione recalled that whenever she had inquired about Tom's own notes, he had evaded to answer her. The best concession she had been able to tickle out of him was that he would tell her later, once he'd checked her notes so that he wouldn't just repeat what she already knew. Hermione hadn't been able to shake off that peculiar feeling that he knew more than he'd let on. And wasn't now a good point for him to spill the beans?

As casually and lightly as she could manage while she inwardly was close to a nervous breakdown, Hermione inquired, "since I didn't made any progress on the actual time phenomenon, I concentrated on the study of it's effects and consequences these last weeks, as you can see. Were you successful with research on the actual spell?" She craned her neck to gaze expectantly at Tom.

Tom lowered the scroll on the possibility of temporal paradoxes created by their encounters slowly. A smirk spread on his lips, a truly malicious one. "Why", he cooed, voice sweet and amused, "of course I was. I'm responsible for this meeting."

To be continued…

Review responses for both chapter two and three (and this is going to be huge, 62 reviews, you make me so happy!):

**Luckylily: **Actually, at the time you wrote this review, I was wondering as well how I was going to give them a chance to meet again. I still haven't fully decided on the purpose of my neat magical tower, actually sheepish  
**Wanamaker:** Sorry for having ended at such a mean place. Problem was, I didn't knew exactly how to continue, so I had Tom come first :-D  
Riddled-Slytherin: Thank you very much!  
**Necro-Lord:** Here it is  
** spaceyksee: **Update is here, but I fear it wasn't soon... :-) I'm a horrible lazy writer hangs head in shame  
**Amy Lee: **Thanks for the long review! I'm so glad that you think that this level of ooc-ness is still believable, because I was really worried about that.  
**sexy-less: **Ah, and another long rewiew! Thanks for that and for the very nice compliments:-) I'm glad that you liked it when Hermione threw up, I felt a bit bad for doing it to her, but it's just too funny to have the always composed Hermione react like this to pass it up.  
**Pallas Athena1:** No, that's perfectly alright, I love questions! I just fear that I can't answer them, because I haven't decided on the answers myself yet. I'm really winging this story and hoping for inspiration to strike me whilst I write, I think that's one of the reasons why this takes so long (other than my extreme laziness). But you will receive answers sometime soon, I think, since I'm itching for a Hermione/Voldemort confrontation.  
**Zaralya: ** kicher Hab ein ganz schön dummes Gesicht gemacht, als ich gerade beim nochmal durchlesen der Reviews zum Beantworten auf einmal eines auf Deutsch gefunden hab. Und jepp, ich bin sowohl bei O&U und Light & Darkness! Das sind auch zwei meiner absoluten Lieblingsships, wenn auch zusammen mit Leather & Libraries.  
**Vera-Sabe: **If there would be a price for longest review, that would be all yours glomps Can I marry you? ;-D Thank you so much for all your great compliments! I was very happy when you mentioned that underlying aggressiveness in my Tom that showed when Hermione told him that she's a muggle-born, since it's only mentioned in one sentence, I think. I'm trying to show both his darker and lighter sides, but I'm always a bit doubtful if I really get the balance right. You have reassured me very much there :-) I found that I'm actually enjoying it a lot to write Ron and Harry as Hermione'soverprotective, yet clueless best friends, so I think there will be more of them in the story than I had originally intended. I'm already looking forward to it when they find out who Hermione's been seeing. I'm glad I didn't make you cry! I just couldn't be so cruel to them as to have their encounter turn out to have merely been a dream.  
**Dragoness Kaei: **Yeah, there's really a Samhain, it's the Pagan/older version of Halloween, actually. I try to get my English right, but in the end, there are always some mistakes that slip past me. The sad thing is that the same happens to me when I write German, too :-D My sentences are always really weird. But I'm happy when someone points out mistakes for me, because I barely ever notice my own ones.  
**The Mad Madame: **Thanks, Mad Madame!  
**Sabrina:** Thank you so much! I hope that I can hold up to your expectations :-)  
**Kalinda: **Thank you, kalinda!  
**psychictraveller: **Wow, thank you!  
**Tomo Star: **I'm sorry that I did took so long to update, I'll try harder!  
**Cleo: **blushes Thanks!  
**Serena:** Thank you, Serena!  
**anonymous:** Thanks!  
**Avery-Rose-Rain-Slytherin: **Thank you, and I love the nickname, by the way!  
**Son of Evil: **It's a pleasure:-)  
**FrEckLeD tRiCkStA:** Thanks!  
**summer: **I'll try now to update quicker.  
**Zaralya:** And again, thanks for your review! By the way, I think you're the first reviewer for chapter 3 extra glomp  
**emikae:** Thanks!  
**JellyBellys:** I'm flattered that you think me to be worthy:-)  
**Artemis MoonClaw: **Here it is!  
**scifichick774: **Thank you!  
**Gywnn-Potter: **Well, better late than never, right:-) I'll try to be faster, though.  
**Dreaming One: **I'm sorry for my short chapters! If it's any consolidation, I'll try to make chapter six, which I'm currently working on, extra long.  
**Jaid Ziaen:** joinsdance  
**Grizza:** lach Für mich ist's auch angenehm, zwischen meinem verdrehten Englisch auf Deutsch zu antworten auf Reviews  
**Solitaire's Mornie:** Thank you!  
** F75: **Thank you!  
**GeekGoddess1: **Thanks!  
**ebony ink: **You made me very happy when I got your review, I hadn't had a clue that it would be so soon.  
**silver rose petal: **I'm glad that you like it! Yeah, sadly, there are so few HG/TR out there :-(  
**Lady Evanescence: **Yay! Thank you so much!  
heaves huge sigh of relief And here Netscape closed itself and I thought I had lost the review responses I'd just written in QuickEdit. I'm all giddy now that I didn't!  
**Clairchen: **I promise I'll try to make Tom falling for Hermione as realistic as possible. And I'm not sure if she'll exactly part with Ron and Harry... Since I don't have any real plans (more like no plans at all), I can't say for sure yet. But I'll definitely keep your warning in mind.  
**Engel Star 13: **No, Tiberius is an OC.  
**Daxi: **Thanks!  
**black-ranger: **Thank you!  
**Dark Topaz: **Here it is :-)  
**Sakuyu Kaleido:** I finally did!  
**Kou Shun'u: **I had almost forgotten the scarf and the hairs on it... I'll keep that in store, I think I could make something of that later in the story manic grin  
Gah: I have kept written, though it probably didn't look like it, with how long I hadn't updated. I won't abandon Sleepless, I love it too much for that, but I'm so lazy...  
**Avery-Rose-Rain-Slytherin: **It took me very long to do so, but now I have finally updated relieved sigh

Well, that's it! See you next time!


	5. When wonders will never cease Part 2

Author's Notes: Well, here it finally is, the new chapter of Sleepless! Thank you all for your reviews! I'm so proud, 88 reviews, that's awesome! I'm sorry that the new chapter took so long again sighs Excuses, excuses... But these months were really rather crappy for me, I'd always been busy with real life and, well, I completely forgot about this story for a while.

I also noticed that hasn't been doing scene breaks properly all the time arghs I'm sorry. I'll see that I get these chapters edited sometime soon. I'll use these rulers for scene breaks since they're apparently the only thing that works kicks chapter is very short and I apologize for that. I wanted to write both from Tom and Hermione's perspective, but I couldn't get the Tom perspective right, so I made do with just Hermione. Writing Hermione is easier for me than Tom. On the bright side, I have chapter 6 and 7 finished. Chapter 6 will be Hermione's POV as well and we'll finally get Harry and Ron back into the story. Chapter 7 will be Tom's POV, it's going to be another short peek into the past like chapter 3. I think I might write something with Voldemort and Dumbledore's reactions in chapter 8, but I really don't know. I don't have an idea where to go after chapter 7, to be honest sheepish smile We'll see... But I certainly plan to continue this story, even though updates are painfully slow.

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

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**Sleepless**

Chapter 5: **When wonders will never cease Part 2 - Hermione**

_Tom lowered the scroll on the possibility of temporal paradoxes created by their encounters slowly. A smirk spread on his lips, a truly malicious one. "Why", he cooed, voice sweet and amused, "of course I was. I'm responsible for this meeting."_

Hermione's jaw dropped.

Her mind was wiped completely blank.

Tom Riddle snickered gleefully. He looked as if this was Christmas, Easter and birthday all in one.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle, you're horrible!", Hermione gasped indignantly, though a little smile still played on her lips.

He was a Slytherin, after all, what else could she have expected from him?

This didn't mean, though, that she couldn't give him hell about it. He deserved everything he got.

"Of course I am", he replied sweetly.

Hermione placed her hands on her hips and glared. "So you played me all the time for a fool, didn't you? Talked with me here about my ideas when you knew already the truth!", she said indignantly.

Tom's smile turned somewhat sheepish. "Well, your ideas were interesting and I don't have all the answers, either. Besides, I was curious how far you'd got on your own."

But it's in Hermione's nature to crave answers and this time was no different. No matter how much she thought that Tom deserved a serious scolding, she wanted to have her questions answered. "Well, then tell me already everything you know, Riddle, maybe I'll forgive you then", Hermione said loftily. She glared. "And that better be good, after all my time you wasted already."

To Hermione's immense frustration, Tom didn't looked the least bit bothered either by her scolding or her demand, though. Actually, he still seemed to enjoy himself far too much for her liking. "Let me just give you the book that answered my questions, you'll find it to be more satisfying than my explanations ever could be", he replied smoothly. Tom fetched a black bag out of his pocket, no larger than a purse. After a muttered incantation and a flick of his wand, the purse had the size of a backpack and overflowed with books and parchments. He dragged a book from the very bottom of the bag out and handed it to Hermione. "Actually, you can keep it, if you like", he added generously.

Hermione glanced at the cover, then her lips thinned and she turned her glare back on. "You didn't happen to get this book from the Restricted Section, did you?", she asked, her tone austere, but it sounded more like a statement than a question.

Tom flashed her a smirk. "Well, if it makes you happy…", he drawled leisurely. "Yes, I did get it from the Restricted Section. I'm a seventh-year and Head Boy, remember?"

Hermione narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Tom Riddle was a bit too nonchalant about this. And after he had already opened the Chamber of Secrets, Hermione doubted Professor Dumbledore would let him get his hands on a book on Salazar Slytherin's other well-hidden monsters. Actually, she shuddered to think of what evil plans he'd already begun with the help of this particular book. "Did you checked it out? Officially, I mean?"

Tom glared at her, irritated. "What does it matter to you? Just read chapter seven and stop bugging me!", he snapped.

That was all the answer that Hermione needed. She would certainly not keep that book and get blamed for it's theft, she wouldn't let herself be framed the way he had already framed Hagrid 50 years ago for the basilisk attack, friends or no friends. Hermione petted the spine and cover of the book absent-mindedly. "And you're sure that it's not cursed? It won't suck out my life energy, scream or burn my eyes?"

"Do you think I would give you such a book! Just read it, damn it!", Tom growled. Obviously in a huff, he walked to the other side of the Astronomy Tower's platform to watch the stars from there.

Hermione shrugged slightly, she was a bit puzzled by Tom's sudden irritable mood.

But then again, she'd already experienced some of his mood swings. Hopefully, he'd be back to normal or at least back to nice soon.

The question flashed through her mind again that he'd angrily asked her. Would she credit him with giving her a dangerous book?

Sad as it made Hermione to admit it, for she had truly begun to think of Tom Riddle as a friend, the answer beyond doubt was yes.

She couldn't let herself forget that he was the future Lord Voldemort and that he'd already at the tender age of 15 created a soul-sucking diary. He certainly had a history with dangerous Dark books. Besides, no more could she allow herself to forget that she was Muggle-born and just how much Tom hated all Muggle-borns.

She sighed wistfully while she leafed through the book in search for chapter seven.

Tom made it a point to ignore Hermione.

* * *

Hermione broke the tense silence with a lazy, "Tom?" 

The boy just grunted something unintelligible.

"Maybe this is a bit too straightforward… But I've wondered for a while if you noticed that I'm not from your time and why you didn't said anything about it", she said softly.

"I believe in the time-honoured art and virtue that goes by the name of discretion", he replied wryly.

Hermione snickered, but she couldn't let herself get distracted again. "Be serious, Tom", she said sternly.

Tom lazily peered at Hermione from underneath his dark lashes. He looked absolutely unaffected by her suspicions. "To be honest, when I first caught sight of you, I thought that you were another of the watchdogs that Muggle-loving fool Dumbledore has sent on me", he admitted easily. "Fortunately for us Slytherins, Gryffindors are miserable liars and even more miserable actors who wouldn't know subtlety if it hit them in the face."

Hermione bristled indignantly.

But Tom ignored her righteous anger completely. "And so I figured that you didn't lied flat out. I still believed that you lied to some extent… I'm not a man who believes easily in miracles. But I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and didn't hexed you right into the Hospital Wing for your possible attempts to spy on me." He cocked one eyebrow quizzically. "And when you told me that you're Muggle-born, you convinced me. Dumbledore and his followers know that I feel a certain dislike for Muggle-borns in Hogwarts, no one who would have wanted to get a scrap of information out of me or just have the pleasure of my company for a minute longer would have admitted to be Muggle-born." He flashed Hermione a "duh" look. "And so I came to my temporary conclusion about your motives and intentions – that you were mostly harmless and clueless."

Hermione huffed indignantly. "Neither assumption is flattering", she stated wryly.

"It was not my intention to flatter you", Tom replied.

Hermione rolled her eyes. Sarcastically, she said, "well, aren't we a little ball of happiness tonight."

"We resent that remark, for we are neither little nor spherical", Tom shot back, just as amused as ever.

Hermione felt again that urge to smack him with her wand. She would have never thought it possible that Lord Voldemort could be so annoying. That gave her an idea and a smirk of her own found it's way onto Hermione's lips. Two could play that game… "Funny, Voldemort, very funny", she said with dry humour and raised an eyebrow quizzically. The name of the Dark Lord didn't came as easily over her lips as she would have liked, but she expected Tom to be too shocked that she knew the name in the first place to pay much attention to the tone of voice she uttered it in.

Later, of course, Hermione would wonder how she could have ever been so stupid. But at that moment, she was so tired that she could barely think straight anymore, if she could at all, and just wanted to get a rise out of her apparently harmless friend.

And Hermione wasn't to be disappointed.

Tom Riddle tensed out of the blue, within a moment his stance had changed completely, his face had darkened into a hateful scowl. All relaxation and amusement had vanished, he actually did resemble the Dark Lord more in that moment than he resembled the rather good-natured teenage boy that Hermione had come to know. "Tell me where you learned that name", he ground out. And, worst of all, he had drawn his wand before Hermione had a chance to pick up her own from the floor.

She truly wished now to be able to turn back time.

Or just stop to panic.

Hermione's gaze was transfixed to the wand. Her breath came in small, hitched gasps. "Tom", she pleaded nervously.

"Next time I ask you, it'll be under Imperius", he growled. No… it sounded more like a hiss.

Hermione was reminded of the times that Harry had told her about Voldemort's return. The disfigured face, the hissing voice…

But this wasn't Lord Voldemort. It wasn't. It was her friend Tom Marvolo Riddle, a boy with a ferocious temper, but also one who had never hurt her before, no matter how much she had needled him. Yet… As she raised her eyes to gaze beseechingly into his eyes, all she found was a cold fury.

Hermione's thoughts sped through her mind, many of them too fast for her to grasp and fully process. She could claim that he wouldn't be able to curse her through time, but then this might encourage him to try. And if objects could pass through time, there was a good chance that spells could, too… She could lie, but she didn't doubted that he would cast Imperius on her, not while he was as furious as he was now. He was young, maybe she would be able to throw Imperius off. But if she wouldn't be able to do so in time… Well, he's likely to kill her before she got a chance to explain and convince him that she meant him no harm. But then again, if she told him the truth, would the consequences of that be even worse…?

It took all her self-control not to avert her eyes, but she wanted him to see that she's honest. "Everyone knows, Tom", she whispered. " You have become a rather well-known wizard under that name." It was not enough, he certainly wouldn't be satisfied with it. But Hermione feared that she would only make matters worse the more she told him.

Tom's green eyes narrowed in suspicion. "And how do I know that you aren't lying to me?", he hissed.

Hermione racked her brains for something that his Dumbledore couldn't know. It was the only way to convince him that he's truly a well-known persona at the moment. She just hoped that he wouldn't ask what he was famous for. "You can't, Tom, you'll have to trust me. Everyone knows you, you're famous. Please don't forget that mine is a completely different time. I'm from the year 1996, Tom. There are many books written on your life." And that wasn't even a lie, Hermione thought. "You are a Parselmouth. You're Slytherin's Heir. You opened the Chamber of Secrets at the age of 15 and a girl named Myrtle was killed, she haunts since then the girls' bathroom. You… you charmed a diary to hold your memories. I don't know if you can do that already at this age, but you'll become a powerful Legilimens, too."

"And what have I done that they teach Mudbloods about me?", he sneered.

Hermione felt hurt course through her. The logical part of her mind realised that it's silly of her to believe that the Dark Lord wouldn't call her by that name when regular bullies like Draco Malfoy did. But still…

Well, what had he done?

Killed Muggles and Muggle-borns, killed Harry's family, been resurrected, become the new Dark Lord after Grindelwald… But Hermione realised that if she told him about that, she might actually encourage him to delve at an earlier age into the Dark Arts, which would result in even more deaths. But what good deeds had Voldemort ever done that she could safely tell him about? He would hardly believe her if she told him he discovered the potion to undo Adava Kedavra or became a famous Auror, would he?

"You… you're very powerful", she stammered.

Tom snorted. "You said so already", he snapped impatiently, "now tell me what I'm famous for!"

"Well, you're a Parselmouth and Slytherin's only Heir. You're said to be the most brilliant student to ever attend Hogwarts. You continued to study magic after you graduated." What was it again that Dumbledore had told Harry at the end of second year? "And you underwent many magical transformations."

"You avoid to answer", Tom stated coolly.

Hermione snorted in annoyance. Now that the shock ebbed off, irritation crawled up and Hermione didn't welcomed it at all. She did stupid things when she was both irritated and overtired. Like to call Tom Riddle by the name of Voldemort. This time was no different. Hermione rolled her eyes and groaned in frustration. "You did bad things, okay?", she snapped. "You underwent magical transformations, you became ever more powerful, got extremely good at Legilimency and then you used all that knowledge and talent for evil purposes, in the end you killed yourself accidentally with one of your own spells, end of the story!"

"What a cheerful tale", Tom remarked wryly.

Hermione searched Tom's eyes again, full of hope that this had calmed him down, she tried to gauge his menace-level.

He smirked again. That was good, wasn't it? Or would he cackle in a moment like these movie villains always did before they killed the hero's girl?

"So in a nutshell, I'm a dumb idiot to get myself killed with my own spell?", he added.

Hermione looked very uncomfortable. "Uh…."

Tom smiled and put his wand back into one of his cloak pockets. "Wonderful, you made my life just look that much brighter", he teased.

It was Hermione's turn to narrow her eyes.

He had let her decidedly too quickly off the hook. No matter how much she liked the nicer sides of Tom, she couldn't deny anymore that he was a very dangerous individual. And when he'd been in one moment ready to kill her, he wouldn't be all happy and cheerful again in the next without a good reason.

She replayed the last minute or two of their confrontation. Something must have happened that would have caused Tom's change in mind. And it certainly wasn't her charming personality.

Hermione groaned when she realised what the only logical explanation for Tom's behaviour was. Of course. She had told him that he'd been killed by one of his own spells, but not which spell, when and where. Right away, his demeanour had changed. Now she really wanted to hit him. Preferably with a train, rather than with a wand.

Did he seriously think she was so stupid?

But on the other hand… She couldn't exactly complain. He had let her off the hook, after all. She would just have to be careful and not ever drink anything she was given by Tom, as long as she stuck to that she would be safe because he needed her.

Hermione forced herself to relax somewhat. For the time being, she was safe. And the next time, she wouldn't be caught off-guard like that. Tom Riddle better prepare to face a force to be reckoned with the next time he threatened her with a wand.

Hermione ran a hand through her bushy hair and tucked some wayward strands behind her ear. "So…", she said uneasily. Apprehensively, she glanced at Tom.

"So, I think we discussed my reactions during our last meeting when we were so rudely disturbed", he said smoothly.

"Of course", Hermione muttered. But she didn't knew what else to say. That little temper tantrum of Tom's had certainly ruined the mood for her. She exaggerated a yawn. "Maybe I should go to bed sometime soon. I'm sure it's early."

"Provided that time progresses at the same speed in your time and mine, you have November 22st 1996 and that's a Friday", Tom pointed out reasonably. "Unless you have a Hogsmeade weekend tomorrow, you won't need to go anywhere."

Damn it. She hated smart men.

To be continued…

* * *

Review responses:  
**DarkMage6:** Thank you, I'm enjoying writing it as well :-)  
**melissa:** Thank you, it flatters me very much that you read this despite that it isn't your usual ship.  
**Quill of the Lark:** eek! And thank you for telling me about Tom's eyes. I'll change that when I add these scene break thingies.  
**tickle the dragon:** Thank you very much. And by the way, I love your name!  
**OnlyMe:** Thanks!  
**ClareJ:** You flatter me very much! Reviews don't need to be long to make me happy :-)  
**Miss Elvira Dark:** You people make me wonder if I should lock myself in ;-) anxiously looks for people with pitchforks This time it isn't as much of a cliffhanger, so I hope you won't cause me bodily harm ;D 

Gah, and just now, Netscape crashed before I could save the update changes and ate a douzen or so review responses grrr Oh well, here goes nothing... Second time's the charm and if I have to do them a third time, then I'll find a way to give my computer that cold I'm having. I really should switch from this Quick Edit which gives me always a hard time to a decent composer or html editor. Talk about being lazy and ending up with more trouble in the end... But when I copy stuff from Word into Netscape Composer, then I end up with a weird letter jungle.

Thank you!  
**Tomo Star: **Thank you, I'm glad you liked the time spell!  
**Oliver's Quidditch Crazy: **Thank you so very much for your reviews! I'm really pleased that you liked the humour in this story, since I'm usually having such a hard time inserting some humour into a story. Or more like, I so rarely have characters to work with who actually possess a sense of humour :-D I'm glad you liked my book, maybe it'll star again in the story in some other context ponders this And you liked my explanation for Tom's behaviour, yay! Now I'm excited already about chapter 7, hoping that you'll like that one as well.  
**Highlandcoo: **Yippie, another person convinced of the goodness of Tom/Hermione! insane cackle

Puh! Netscape just died again on me and I was already convinced that I'd lost the reviews again. Evil browser, it's trying to drive me insane and then it'll take over the world, really...  
And again... Now I'll try to use theAOL software, maybe AOL is easier cowed by threats of a computer massacre. The really annoying thing is that Netscape never gives me a hard time, never unless I'm trying to upload a story...

**Sabrina-Rosalie:** Hi again! I hadn't thought yet of having a confrontation between Tom and Dumbledore, but I really like that idea! I think I'll look for a way to insert that in the elusive chapter 8 :D Or maybe I'll add it to chapter 7, I'm not sure yet. Yay, I'm happy you liked the way I portrayed Tom in his time/had him being seen by the rest of Hogwarts.  
I thought since there are some great fics out there where Tom is really popular, it would make for a nice change to have him be scoffed at by the rest of the school and especially his own house. And it also makes it easier for him to hide his plans when other students don't try to always hang out with him but rather don't want to be seen in his company. When his classmates try to be friends with him, they'll mostly do so either for his Head Boy privileges or because he's such a good student and they want him to do their homework or help them prepare for tests, something like that. There won't be many who realize that he isn't just such a good student because he is a nerd, but rather because he's a very powerful and intelligent wizard.  
Also, I thought that he would have had better chances of becoming Head Boy when he hid his hate of muggle-borns and it would keep the teachers off his back. Well, except for Dumbledore.  
**Sakuya Kaleido:** Thank you!  
**NecroLord:** Yes, he was responsible just for this one.  
**Vera-Sabe:** First of all, thank you so much that you recommended my story to Oliver's Quidditch Crazy! glomps You make me so happy!  
Urghs, and now I lost that long review reply for you as well mostly because I hit the wrong button before I got a chance to copy the text... Today REALLY isn't my day. But since I got so far already, I'm determined to see this through now :D  
I'm happy that you liked the way I had Tom figure it out and manage to use the spell as well. I wanted it to be Hermione at first, but then I figured that since Tom had more experience with the Dark Arts, he would have a better chance to get it right. Besides, I'm not sure if Hermione would have used the spell at all, since she was (and still is) struggling with the fact that Tom is the future Dark Lord.  
And yeah, Tom definitely is an aggressive person, I didn't wanted to made him all nice and it's actually rather difficult to find the right balance. I'm doubtfulmost of the timeif I get it right, but you people seem to like it, so I guess it's okaysmiles I hope you'll like it as well when he's aggressive in this chapter. He just took over the keyboard and insisted to threaten Hermione with a wand. I had a hard time convincing him not to cast any Unforgivables on her. smirks evilly And now Hermione has got a harsh reminder that he's not all nice, I just couldn't let her become comfortable already in his company.  
It's great that you like Tiberius. I'm very hesitant to include OCs in fanfics because of my personal Mary Sue/Gary Stu paranoia, so it makes me really happy that you like the way I wrote him. He'll have another appearance in chapter 7 and he certainly isn't done being an annoying git ;)  
And I'm really winging it. I have no more than a few keywords before I start a chapter or some reeeally rough idea what I want to happen in that chapter. Usually, I like to have at least something beforehand, but this story is just too unpredictable to plan anything ahead of time.  
And yeah, we'll definitely have to wait and see whether Tom is trying to do something evil. I don't have a clue, either.  
**ix.dovienya.xi:** Thank you!  
**sexy-jess:** Well, all I can tell you is that Dumbledore knows SOMETHING. Whether he's right... we'll see :D Thank you for your review!  
**Avery-Rose-Rain-Slytherin:** Thank you! I'm sorry that the update took so long again. I'm a lazy writer.  
**Wow:** Thanks! It's funny, I never used cliffhangers as much as in this story. I fear there will be another one at the end of the next chapter, because for the life of me I can't figure out where to go with this scene I'm stuck at. laughs That's the real reason for my cliffhangers, I just often don't know where to go from a certain point, so I end the chapter there if it's a halfway good place to stop or I would never get anything posted. I'm just too obsessed with editing for my own good.  
**hpfanf:** Thank you!  
**scifichick774:** Thank you!  
**black-ranger:** Here it is!  
**Luckylily:** Thank you so much for your review and for being the first reviewer again!  
**GAH:** I'm sorry that I missed you when I did the review responses for chapter 4! sheepish I must have been so excited about almost being done that I didn't paid proper attention. Thank you for your review!

As an appropriate finish (or so I hope fervently), Julius Caesar just had to give me a huge scare. I had just saved the update changes when the screen suddenly went black. I'm easily scared, because just a couple of weeks ago, there was some windows error because of which the hard drive had to be wiped, so I'm panicking at every little peep that infernal machine makes now.


	6. When wonders will never cease Part 3

Wow! You wrote so many reviews, I still can't believe it! 134 reviews, that's nearly as much as I got for all my other stories together! Thank you all so very much! hugs all reviewers and treats them to self-baked chocolate muffins

I'm so sorry that it took me so long to update! The most shameful thing is that I've had chapter six done already for such a long time. But then HBP got out and I thought I would rewrite the whole series to make Tom canon. I decided against it in the end, since I don't think the story would work as well with canon-Tom. Besides, I always fret so much about whether I've got my characters just right, I probably would never get done with the revision, let alone get around to write new chapters. Then Microsoft Word broke and when I got Word back, my internet connection was gone for a whole month. It was fortunate, though, in a way, because I finally started on chapter eight on paper whilst my computer was in the repair shop. And I wrote a Merope/Tom sen. one-shot is still insanely happy about that

I hope that chapters won't take as long now anymore... but I always say that, don't I? resigned sigh

Since we're supposed to write only short author notes now on fanfiction . net and I want to reply personally to all my reviewers, I have toyed with the idea to add a special review response page for Sleepless to my own homepage. Once I get it up (with the review responses that should have been at the end of this chapter), I'll link to it from my Personale Profile page here on FFN. Until then... thank you very much!

I apologise in advance for the mean cliffhanger and now without further ado, chapter six...

**Sleepless**

Chapter 6: **When wonders will never cease Part 3**

_"Provided that time progresses at the same speed in your time and mine, you have __November 22st 1996__ and that's a Friday", Tom pointed out reasonably. "Unless you have a Hogsmeade weekend tomorrow, you won't need to go anywhere."_

_  
Damn it. She hated smart men._

"I still need my sleep, Tom", Hermione argued. She hated herself for her pleading tone of voice.

Tom gazed quizzically at her. "I don't know if I'll be able to recreate the spell, so shouldn't we do these magical experiments that you suggested earlier? I managed to cast the spell, but that doesn't means that I understand it fully. I want to figure out what this time travelling tower was used for."

Hermione wondered herself what reason Salazar Slytherin would have had to cast Dark time travel magic on the Astronomy Tower. But she doubted greatly that it would be a good idea to help Tom Riddle to figure it out. Whatever obscure reason Slytherin might have had for this bewitching of the Astronomy Tower, Hermione was convinced that he'd been up to no good. She really didn't wanted another Chamber of Secrets debacle, least of all with her being the one manipulated into aiding Tom Riddle this time as Ginny Weasley had been in her second year.

"The last time you fooled around with one of your little Dark toys, I was petrified, so no, I don't think so, Tom", Hermione said sternly.

Tom crossed his arms in front of his chest defensively and glared right back. "I don't know what you're talking about, Hermione."

Hermione just shot him an incredulous look. "Yeah, sure, of course you don't know a thing about it", she scoffed. "Let me jump-start your memory. Chamber of Secrets, Muggle-born-hating Basilisk, Moaning Myrtle, framing Hagrid, soul-sucking diary that possesses the person who writes in it, does that ring a bell?"

"Scientific experiments gone wrong can happen to the best of us", Tom replied nonchalant.

This obvious underestimation of her intelligence annoyed Hermione greatly, but she chastised herself into calmness. She could not afford to anger the young Dark Lord again so shortly after she had just barely escaped an Avada Kedavra. "That attitude of yours is just another sound reason not to support your experiments."

Tom glared coolly at Hermione. "Then try to stop me", he sneered.

Sure enough, Hermione didn't doubted that he would do these experiments with her help or without it. With his extensive knowledge of the Dark Arts, he probably wouldn't even miss her assistance. If they co-operated, there was at least a small chance that she would be able to learn of dangerous breakthroughs in time to warn Professor Dumbledore, should it become necessary. "You're not going to curse me, hex me or otherwise use me as your guinea pig, if that's what you're looking forward to, Tom", Hermione ordered sternly.

Tom pouted playfully. "You're no fun. I'll just have to bring Tiberius Lestrange along as the guinea pig then." He gave a derisive snort. "Stupid as he is, he would even come."

Hermione cleared her throat, once again she reminded herself of Umbridge. "I think we need some rules if we are going to work on this together. We can't tell anyone or include anyone in our project without agreeing both to it. I'll be in big trouble if the people in my time find out that I've been consorting with you. There is no saying how our meetings already mess up the timeline, it would not be wise to include anyone else. We must be completely honest to another, none of us will keep back research results. I must warn you that I won't react nicely if you two-time me and try to cause some kind of damage to anyone in my time, any other time or my reality itself. I realise that you don't think very much of Muggle-borns, but you'll find out that I'm a capable witch if you must!"

Tom stared incredulously at Hermione, mouth agape. After long moments, he broke out into roaring laughter.

Hermione glared.

"It's just…", another snort of laughter, "…so funny…", chuckles, "…that you would dare to threaten me with a straight face knowing what I'm capable of!", Tom exclaimed.

"I know very well what you're capable of and that's what worries me", Hermione ground out between clenched teeth. Why did Riddle have to be back to annoying already? She hated it when he laughed at her, though she refused to think about the reasons why his opinions mattered to her.

Tom smiled proudly as if Hermione had just paid him a great compliment.

Again, Hermione experienced the urge to smack him. If she wouldn't have been so annoyed with him, she probably would have been amazed that she had managed to befriend a boy who infuriated her even more than Ron. Hermione walked a few steps around the platform to get the stiffness out of her chilled limbs, as she did so, she weighed her wand absent-mindedly in her hand. "Let's get on with it before there's only a Hermione-shaped icicle left of me. I suppose you don't know any better warming charms, do you?", she asked hopefully.

"What would I get out of teaching them to you?", Tom replied without hesitation.

Hermione heaved a long-suffering sigh and chose not to deign Tom's ridiculous demand with a reply. Instead, she went into study-mode. "I suggest we start by leaving some small marks on the stone, both magical and non-magical. We can check if we both see the notches and then come back later today… tomorrow and see if they're still there. If we manage to meet again, we can swap notes. We should also find out if we can cast spells on another or our clothes and see if they remain once we're both back in our own, separate times. We should also arrange a date for the next meeting, I don't fancy spending most evenings in the Astronomy Tower with just a small hope that I might meet you again by chance as I did for these last couple of weeks." As immersed as Hermione was in the creation of her to-do list, she didn't noticed what she had admitted to.

Tom's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, but Hermione didn't paid much attention to his antics anymore. Then a smirk spread on his lips. "Ah, so you admit that you were so keen to see me again that you came here all the time? I feel so loved!", he snorted, in a mixture of friendly teasing and mockery.

Hermione turned her head to fully face Tom with an annoyed frown on her face. "It wasn't you, it's the mystery of the time travel phenomenon that didn't left me alone." With a triumphant expression, Hermione added, "besides, you're affected just as much or you would not have spent all the time researching and even casting the spell once again."

Tom replied with a careless, unaffected shrug.

Oh well, if he wanted to act cool, Hermione would just get on with the experiments without his disturbances, she decided. She pointed her wand at Tom. "Do you mind?", she asked innocently.

Faint alarm flickered over Tom's face before he forcefully wiped his face expressionless again. "Do your worst, but remember that I'll get my turn, too."

Now that she had actually got permission to cast whatever spell she liked on the young Lord Voldemort, Hermione found that she didn't had a clue which one she wanted to use. Or more like, which one she dared to cast. "Mobilocorpus", Hermione spoke, voice laced with uncertainty.

Despite that he had heard the spell spoken, Tom looked vaguely surprised when he was lifted off the ground and deposited back again on the platform about a feet away from the spot he had stood before. He wasted no time to cover up his moment of weakness with a haughty sneer. "If that's the worst you can think of, you should have continued to live as a Muggle", he scoffed.

Hermione wanted so badly to curse him, only the impending retribution made her restrain herself. She wouldn't put it past Tom Riddle to entice her into a nasty curse right now only so he would have an excuse to curse her twice as badly. A smirk of her own played on her lips as she got the perfect idea. "Reducio." With grim satisfaction, Hermione watched Tom Riddle shrink to Professor Flitwick's size.

"That is… I'll get you back for that!", Riddle yelled indignantly. "Enlarge me this very instant!"

"Of course, Tom, I wouldn't dream of it", Hermione said sweetly. "Engorgio." All that Hermione enlarged were his clothes and that by far farther than they had been before.

Tom came to look like a child in a giant's clothes. His cloak and robe pooled around him in a heavy heap of black cloth whilst he had to hold his pants by the waistband with one hand to keep them from falling off. "You're a riot, mudblood!", the bad-tempered Dark wizard snapped. Tom found his own wand in the huge pockets of his cloak and pointed it at Hermione. "Serpensortia!"

Hermione's eyes widened in alarm as a large green snake shot out of Tom's wand.

Tom hissed something to the snake, who hissed in response and advanced slowly, yet meticulously on Hermione. Whilst Hermione was occupied with the snake, he returned himself to his normal size. The clothes, Tom decided to leave this way, they were as good for this test as any and he'd rather have a spell used on them than on him.

Several times, Hermione tried to use Stupefy on the snake, but apparently, it had been warned of that and so it managed to evade her every attempt. Hermione glared at Tom and noticed with some surprise that he wasn't Flitwick-sized anymore. It's then that she realised with a startling burst of affection that he hadn't actually tried to harm her, or the snake would have already attacked her, it had been given ample time. He must have warned it not to hurt her when he talked to it, she guessed. But still, she couldn't just rely on his good will not to continue with the duel. And what better opportunity than to disarm Tom whilst he was still distracted… "Expelliarmus!", Hermione shouted.

The wizard was caught completely off-guard when Hermione's spell hit him, made his wand fly out of his hand and directly into Hermione's outstretched one. He swore under his breath and glared all the more maliciously at Hermione.

Hermione just smiled sweetly. "Sorry, Tom, but I can't have you go around and curse me just like that", she told him mildly. Hermione held up the phoenix core-wand triumphantly. The thought to break it never crossed her mind at this time. With a small, conciliatory smile, she offered the wand to him.

Tom accepted the wand only very reluctantly and with a pained grimace.

"Get rid of that snake and then let's try the marking of the stone", Hermione suggested. Impatiently, she turned already around and conjured with a little charm a blob of blue paint, which was dropped onto the floor of the platform. Then, she conjured up a sharp knife to scrape a "H" into the stone.

By the time that Hermione was done, Tom mimicked her motions. "I can see yours all right, but I'm curious whether these will still be here when the effect of the spell has faded", he muttered.

Hermione nodded in agreement. "Me, too." She flashed Tom a smile as she inspected her handiwork critically. "This is really exciting, you know?"

Tom snorted. "Of course I know. I wouldn't be here if I wouldn't be just as curious about this as you are", he muttered moodily under his breath.

The Gryffindor rolled her eyes in fond exasperation. "I was just trying to make conversation. Really, Tom, your sulking is petty and childish. You did tell me to "do my worst", after all", Hermione chastised.

"Of course, and you just decided to walk on my pride", he sneered.

Hermione raised an eyebrow at the Slytherin Head Boy. "Really, now you're sounding like just Malfoy. That's downright creepy."

Tom scrunched up his nose in disgust. "I don't know what Malfoy you are talking about, but I resent the notion that I resemble any of them!", he exclaimed indignantly. "Even Tiberius Lestrange isn't as bad as these good-for-nothing Malfoy brats."

Hermione smirked mischievously. "Good-for-nothing, you say?", she asked innocently. "I'm sure Lucius Malfoy would be crushed if he would ever learn what his lord and master thinks of his glorious heritage. He became your older alter ego's right-hand man, though he claimed to have been under the Imperius Curse once you were killed."

Tom flashed Hermione an incredulous look. "I voluntarily spent my time with a Malfoy? And I trusted that Malfoy enough to make him my right-hand man?" He snorted. "I must have been bonkers!"

"Never said you weren't", Hermione teased good-naturedly.

#

Once their experiments were finished, Hermione and Tom spent the wee hours of morning curled up in transfigured blankets and talked once more about everything that crossed their minds from the antics of their professors to the finer points of theoretic DADA and the weird habits of their friends. Hermione sat on the floor where she was protected from the worst of the wind, whilst Tom occupied his favourite seat again, he was perched delicately on top of the broad stone banister, with a blanket thrown over him by Hermione and kept in place by a sticking charm after a gust of wind had nearly swept it away twice.

But even more than the conversation, they enjoyed once again the comfortable silence that stretched between idle chit-chat. When they talked, they always had to be careful not to broach a topic that would lead to another quarrel, but when they stayed silent, they could fully savour the pleasant atmosphere.

"Sunrise has already begun, you have to leave or some early risers will catch you", Tom said out of the blue.

Hermione started, she had nearly nodded off. She craned her head to peek at Tom. "It's so late already?", she asked, surprised. It was hard to pick herself up from the floor and that not only because her legs were stiff from the cold. Hermione leant against the banister next to Tom to check for herself that he'd told her the truth. She sighed in disappointment when she found that indeed, the first tendrils of light crawled over the horizon. "I guess that is it then…", she said awkwardly and brushed the wrinkles out of her robes to keep her hands busy.

Tom turned his head to face Hermione, a lazy, peaceful smiled played on his lips. "Same day, same time next week?"

Hermione couldn't hide her surprise. Sure, they had seemed to agree that they would meet again. But… there was a nervous fluttering in her stomach as she realised that Tom was just as eager to see her again as she was. "I'll be looking forward to it all week", Hermione said honestly. To hide the fierce blush that was sure to spread on her cheeks, she leant forward to stuff the scattered contents of her book bag back into the leather satchel. Hermione's head shot upwards again as she suddenly realised that she hadn't even once considered what toll the spell-casting might have on Tom. "Are you sure that it isn't too early? I wouldn't want you to weaken yourself with the spell or suffer any other ill side effects. I have waited for three weeks, I can wait some more."

Tom flashed the bushy-haired girl a superior smirk. "Don't worry your pretty head about it, I'm not the Heir of Slytherin for nothing. The Dark magic of this spell is very powerful, it's true ancient magic of the Founders age, but I'm positive that I can handle it", the Slytherin replied, his trademark arrogance back in place.

Hermione chuckled softly at the returned cockiness. "Good, good, if you think you can do it, I won't hold you back." In her thoughts, she added that whilst Tom was busy with the preparations for the time travel spell, he already wouldn't have any time to plan his evil reign or commit other acts of evil. That made her feel at least a tiny bit less guilty for that she looked forward to their next meeting.

"So it's a date then", Hermione concluded nervously, whilst trying to sound light-hearted. She wrung her hands awkwardly and had to work hard to hide the disappointment she felt at the impending parting. And here she had just come to enjoy Tom's company again… The night seemed to have passed far too early, but there was no delaying her departure anymore. Dawn approached mercilessly.

"Yes, in a week", Tom echoed just as awkwardly.

Hermione hesitated. She really wanted to show Tom how much she cherished the time they had spent together, but it's still so hard to forget that he would become the Dark Lord…

Tom suddenly leapt into motion with a determined gleam in his eyes and serpentine movements. He swung his legs over the edge of the banister, jumped to his feet and reached Hermione in one long stride. He pressed his lips against hers for just a blink of an eye. "Thank you for staying, Hermione", he whispered huskily.

By the time that Hermione had unfrozen, Tom had already fled back to his safe perch. Eyes huge, Hermione was left to stare in flabbergasted awe at the Heir of Slytherin. Mind still numbed, Hermione raised her fingers to her lips. She still felt the tingle of the short kiss on her lips. "What…?", she whispered.

But Hermione had no chance to fathom Tom's intentions, his face was a pleasant, yet blank mask, his eyes were focused once more on something or other in the distance, or maybe something only he could see in his mind. The only sign that anything had happened at all was the tenseness of his whole body in general and the tightly clenched hands in particular. "Leave", he commanded harshly.

In her strange state of mind, that seemed like a perfectly reasonable suggestion, which she decided to heed after one last, lingering look at Tom.

Before the Gryffindor girl's inner eye, the few decisive seconds were replayed time and again.

She descended step after step. With every foot of distance added between her and Tom, the fog left Hemione's head. Not that clarity was much better, the confusion just seemed all the sharper now.

Hermione shook her head in amazement as the thought crossed her mind that her Slytherin yearmates would die from the shock if they would ever learn that she had been kissed by their Heir. The horrified expressions on their faces almost would make it worth it to let them find out about their secretive meetings. What had he been thinking? He hated Muggle-borns, Hermione was absolutely certain of that. Did he toy with her? But Draco Malfoy hated Muggle-borns as well and he was so disgusted with the "Mudbloods" that he would not get anywhere near them, Hermione couldn't believe that he would ever even consider to kiss one, no game would be worth that. So why had Tom?

Yet it was certainly a game. She couldn't permit herself to doubt it. Hermione was a logical person with an analytical mind, she would not allow herself to indulge in some silly schoolgirl fancy, certainly not when the other party was a psychopathic and utterly evil mass murderer-to-be. When you looked at all the possibilities and disregarded the impossible, then whatever remained had to be the truth. It was beyond doubt a strange strategy that Tom Riddle employed to toy with her, but as long as she remained aware of the nature of his ploy, she would fall prey to it.

It still didn't make any sense, though. Her theory had many weak points and downright gaping holes, like what he hoped to attain in the first place by charming her. Only one thing was for certain. Hermione's life was becoming stranger and stranger.

"Wonders will never cease", an amazed Hermione muttered under her breath as she left the Astronomy Tower.

The walk to the Common Room had been a blur. She had just barely avoided Mrs Norris twice, but over the course of the weeks, Hermione had become even better at sneaking around the castle than Ron and Harry. She had embraced the task of stealth just like she embraced her studies, she'd studied all the alcoves, secret passages and niches one had to know to avoid discovery.

But now Filch was after her, she heard his footsteps. "Firefly crackers", she whispered urgently to the Fat Lady.

"My dear, what do we have here, a student out of bed?", Filch muttered.

Hermione heaved a sigh of relief when the portrait swung open, she hurried inside as quickly as she had done few times before and smashed the portrait shut behind her. "Sorry", she whispered to the Fat Lady. Hermione closed her eyes and heaved a sigh of relief.

That had been a narrow escape. She really should demand an Invisibility Cloak of her own from Mr High-and-Mighty. After all, it's his fault and his alone that the rule-abiding Hermione Granger risked detention every night and it's even more so that he had cited her to yet another meeting in the wee hours of morning Saturday night. Just why couldn't he a bit less villainously dramatic and meet her on a nice Sunday afternoon?

Hermione grumbled, but she dared to do so only quietly. Even though she knew that Filch couldn't get inside and wouldn't hear her from the outside unless she screamed at the top of her lungs, it gave her the creeps to be so close to him, just separated by a flimsy portrait from a year of detention.

She held her lit wand outstretched as she walked deeper into the Common Room.

Someone mumbled unintelligibly from the direction of the couches and Hermione's heart skipped a beat.

"'Mione, is that you?" This time, the whisper was louder, though just barely understandable for Hermione. And the one who spoke it possessed a voice that sounded very much like Harry's…

"Harry, Ron?", she whispered back.

Two more wands were lit with twin "Lumos" charms and Hermione could make out the sleepy faces of her friends.

Immediately, the guilt was back in full force. She chuckled nervously. "Ah… what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in bed?"

Harry gave Hermione a pointed look. "Shouldn't you be, too?"

Ron, on the other hand, asked, "why are we sitting here in the dark as if we're doing something forbidden when it's morning already?" He didn't waited for a reply, rather right away left his comfortable armchair to light the candles.

Hermione heaved a little relieved sigh when she didn't needed to squint anymore. The natural light of the early morning wasn't anywhere near enough yet to illuminate Gryffindor Tower through these narrow windows. But it also made it harder to lie her friends whilst she looked into their faces, she realised. As honestly distressed as both of them looked, she just couldn't be mad with them for their snooping. Actually, she realised, she could consider herself lucky that they hadn't followed her underneath Harry's Invisibility Cloak. Not that it would take them much longer to realise that they could and then she would have to deal with a full-blown catastrophe.

"Please don't be mad with us, Hermione", Ron said plaintively as he snuggled back into the nest of blankets that he had heaped upon the armchair. "We were worried about you all month already. So Harry and me figured that we would wait for you when you sneaked out, but…", here he blushed fiercely, "we kind of fell asleep for real and by the time we woke up, the Common Room was already empty. We weren't sure that you were gone, but we decided to wait here for you, just in case. We waited for a while, then we fell asleep again."

Harry blinked innocently at Hermione. He took off his glasses to rub his sleepy eyes. "Were you really gone all night, 'Mione?", he asked, worried.

Hermione closed her eyes in defeat for a moment. There was so no way that she would get out of explaining herself now. At least, explaining herself somewhat, she corrected herself right away, for she certainly couldn't tell her friends with whom she had spent the night. She made a mental note to be more careful next Friday and work on her acting skills as well. She dropped her book bag next to another armchair and flopped down onto it. "Yes, I was out all night", she admitted hesitantly. Her face was nearly split by a huge yawn which she fought bravely.

Ron's jaw dropped, because for once he was the one to figure something out first. Only, he wished that he could have stayed oblivious a little while longer. "You have a boyfriend, 'Mione?", he gasped.

Harry gaped as well at these words, first at Ron, then at Hermione.

Hermione laughed nervously and opened her mouth to deny it fervently, but she knew already that it was a lost cause. She could feel her face burn, after all. They would never believe a beet-red Hermione that she'd spent the night solely in the company of her Ancient Runes textbook. "I don't have a boyfriend, I only talked to someone", she replied cautiously. It was a miserable lie and downright shameful for someone who prided herself on her intelligence, but in her current state of tiredness and embarrassment, as well as with the countless pitfalls her partner-in-crime presented, she couldn't think of anything better than that.

Ron snorted and grinned conspiratorially at her. "Oh come on, 'Mione, you can tell us!", he goaded. "Who is the lucky boy?"

Oh no! Please, couldn't the earth open up and swallow her? Or how about some Death Eater attack on Hogwarts to rescue her? Tom really did owe that much to her. She would kill that infernal Slytherin the next time she saw him for all the trouble he put her through and all that just because he insisted to mess with Dark magic even more than he did already!

Harry perked up at as he noticed that Hermione squirmed underneath their twin inquiring gazes. "Ron is right, you can tell us, Hermione, we won't tell anyone else, not even Ginny", Harry promised. Eagerly, he leant forward in his armchair.

"I don't have a boyfriend!", Hermione snapped. After she had spent a night dealing with Tom Riddle's moods, she just didn't had the patience left for Harry and Ron. She huffed indignantly and stood up again. "I don't see why you are so obsessed with forcing some kind of ridiculous illicit affair on me and I'm sorry if I have to disappoint you, but I'm single and I don't intend to change that, either!" That said, Hermione slung her book bag over her shoulder again and stalked to the staircase which led to the girls dormitories.

If she was really, really lucky and avoided her best friends for the rest of the year, maybe they would dismiss the memories of this morning as a weird dream? Hermione snorted derisively at herself. As if she would be so lucky…

Hermione sneaked into the dormitory and was relieved to learn that her dorm mates apparently weren't half as interested in her love life as her best friends were, for she was the only one awake. She dropped her bag on top of her trunk and her cloak on top of it, her shoes were discarded next to the trunk. Then, still fully clothed, Hermione slipped under the inviting covers of her four-poster bed. She was just too tired to care anymore.

Maybe in the morning, well, more like evening for her, the world would be a brighter place again. Hermione sighed, already half-asleep. Yeah, sure, and maybe pigs would fly.

To be continued…


	7. No longer childrens games

I just finished watching Chamber of Secrets and spontaneously decided to post chapter 7.

Nothing really happens in this chapter, but here we'll finally take a peek into Tom Riddle's mind, so I hope you'll enjoy it nonetheless. I couldn't find a way to include the confrontation with Dumbledore in this chapter without giving away some plot for the next couple of chapters, but there's a good chance that it'll be included in chapter 8 or 9.

Merry Christmas!

**Sleepless**

Chapter 7: **No longer childrens games**

Saturday evening, Tom Riddle could be found in the dungeon that served as the Slytherin Common Room.

He had claimed his favourite overstuffed armchair near the green fire as he did most evenings he spent along with his housemates and had transfigured a sheet of parchment into a small plank of wood that served him as a tabletop whilst he did his homework.

As Tom did always when he mingled with what he planned to become his obedient subjects one day not so far away, he sat in their midst, but he didn't truly sat amongst them. Tom made it a point never to join one of the friendly discussions about Quidditch or Hogwarts' hottest girls, nor did he participate in the heated arguments about Light magic versus Dark Arts or Grindelwald's fall. He sat in the Common Room and worked quietly on his homework and his less incriminating private pet projects and he didn't uttered a single word unless he was spoken to. Even when he was approached by those people who considered themselves his friends, he would react with the kind of haughty mix of annoyance and boredom that the other Houses had come to expect from Slytherins, but not from the bookworm Tom Riddle. Everyone in this school who valued his life knew that Tom Riddle was not to be disturbed whilst he worked, if someone decided to ignore that, then he should rightfully consider himself kissed by fortune if he got away without serious hexes, as far as Tom was concerned.

And these were the days when he would even bother with the immature dunderheads.

Sadly, it just wouldn't do to completely alienate the House from which he planned to recruit most of his followers after graduation, otherwise Tom wouldn't have even wasted as little of his precious time on his fellow Slytherins as he did now.

And you did learn the most fascinating tidbits of information about the true convictions of your fellows when everyone believed you to be oblivious to your surroundings… The best part, though admittedly also the most tiresome one, of being classified as a weirdo nerd was that no one took you seriously. The more paranoid of his Housemates guarded themselves like rabid dogs against possible eavesdroppers, yet they didn't even noticed when they staged their little illicit meetings right under Tom Riddle's nose.

Yet the brainless little schemes of his Housemates had long ago begun to bore Tom. He was no longer a child who played among children, if he had ever been one in the first place, which he was loath to admit.

In the greater scheme of things, it did not matter that Telemachus Rooke plotted to denounce Lucas Bedford as a Mudblood-lover to make Sarah Fairdale break up with him. Nor did it matter that Sarah Fairdale meanwhile planned with her girlfriends to use Gryffindor Seeker Ian Carr to boost her status so that she would get a chance to dig at Tom himself and thus get to use his Head Boy privileges. Tom couldn't have cared less either that Fairdale's supposed best friend had designs of her own for the oblivious Gryffindor and wasn't about to tolerate the competition.

Tom gave a disgruntled sigh as he picked up yet another strand of whispered scheming. Apparently, one of his lackeys had betrayed Rooke to Bedford and now he bribed one of the seventh-year girls with supposed NEWT questions that he would steal from his Ministry-employed father so that she would brew a Dark potion, a Loyalty Draught, for him.

The Slytherin Heir's lip curled up in disgust and he had to stifle a disdainful snort. How unimaginative. The fool could have at least asked for the stronger version, the Faithfulness Oil, if he was insane enough to believe that he would be able to slip a potion that smelled like brimstone into his paranoid girlfriend's drink.

The whole despicable lot of them were nothing but children who liked to pretend that they knew how to play grown-up games.

Now Hermione Granger on the other hand…

At the mere mental mention of her, Tom could feel his spirits soar.

Despite that she was one year below him and half a century away, the little Gryffindor Mudblood was the first true challenge that Tom had had since Hyperion Lestrange left Hogwarts. He had not yet decided what particular use she would be to him apart from the obvious one, but even if she would prove herself unable to be manipulated and used in his ambitious schemes, she was at the very least an enjoyable, inspiring pastime entertainment.

That was more than Tom could say for his future lackeys…

Tiberius Lestrange suddenly flopped into the armchair next to Tom. "Tommy-boy, my favourite friend", the younger Dark wizard said amiably, "you look a bit glum tonight."

Tom had to fight a very strong urge to roll his eyes. He tried to calm himself down with wishful thinking of how enjoyable it would be to take his impromptu tabletop and beat Tiberius Lestrange into a bloody pulp with it. Call him old-fashioned if you liked, but when it came to this particular Pureblood, Tom had always found crude Muggle-style violence to be more satisfying than magic. In particular, since Tiberius Lestrange would never except to have his pure-blooded self bested by such a simple matter as a punch. Or maybe rather a fall from the top of Hogwarts' highest tower, if Tom bothered at all then he might as well make it worth his time.

The friendly exterior fell away when Lestrange didn't received the reaction he had aimed for. He narrowed his eyes in anger and glared venomously at Tom. "Slytherin isn't good enough for His Lordship anymore?", he mocked in a sickly-sweet, yet acidic voice.

Tom glared right back, but he wasn't willing to otherwise rise to the bait.

Lestrange, though, wasn't easily discouraged. "You think you're so far above us, Riddle, but you're just a filthy little Mudblood and everyone will know!"

Inhale … exhale … repeat. Do not let him get to you. With a cracking noise, the quill in Tom's hand broke.

Tiberius Lestrange smiled triumphantly. "You know that I hold your future in my hands, Riddle, you might just as well act the part! Do you honestly believe that Slytherin House will believe you that you aren't a Mudblood? When it's your word against mine? All Lestranges have been Slytherins for fifteen generations, even longer than the Malfoys, we are Slytherin's heirs in everything but name!"

He was going to kill Tiberius Lestrange, Tom promised himself. One day, the haughty miserable rat would die. His whole family would serve and cower before Tom and they would tremble with terror whenever he spoke. He would make them pay, the whole lot of them, just as he had made his worthless father's new family pay for the idiot man's mistakes.

He could barely wait.

And in the meantime, maybe he would take another look at his research on the charmed Astronomy Tower. He, soon-to-be Dark Lord and ruler of all wizards, couldn't let himself be shown up by some muggle-born bookworm, after all. No matter how entertaining that particular know-it-all was and how amusing that gleeful expression on her face would be if she did indeed sow him up… it wouldn't do to let some little Mudblood think he's growing soft, that wouldn't do at all.

Tbc…


End file.
